Boys & Girls: Wimbledon 14 & under Invitational Singles, grass (Week 27)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Boys & Girls: Wimbledon 14 & under Invitational Singles, grass (Week 27)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

You know your life is sad - OR you should get a medal as the best tennis fan ever - when you're watching the 14&U invitational girls event ....

Just to check, does anyone know, are these girls (and boys) 2008 born (and younger)? i.e. they turn/have turned 14 this year?

ADD: just gone and checked - Arabella Loftus is 2008, so obviously yes, me being a little slow - 2008 is the cut-off, as 14 AND under (as the title says indeed), not under 14 and not actual age 14 (which certain young junior events do). Just normal - 2008 and younger

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 7th of July 2022 10:47:04 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Arabella Loftus got beaten easily by a 14 year-old girl from Australia who was just better all round

Isabella Britton's match is interesting

Isabella is 2008-born - hits a strong ball - good strong serve (too many double faults at the moment but not 'bad' double faults) - a really nice game

BUT she's playing the 12 year-old from Czech Rep (although she's born 2009 - turns 13 in September) - name of Veronika Sekerkova

Sekerkova is often mentioned with Hannah Klugman and Ksenia Efremova as the three 2009-ers in Europe to watch

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Great win for Isabelle Britton over the second seed

Mika S also got the win

For general interest, Isabelle Britton very conveninetly actually looks very similar to Isabelle Lacy - both very slender, all limbs, long dark hair pulled back - makes identification easier - a general 'Isabelle' look

Of the three GB 2008 girls playing here, Isabelle stands out - IMO - as by far the most natural ball striker - a very high level of winners (although I appreciate that's partly to do with the opponent) but just a natural acceleration through the ball, a desire to take the ball on, an ability to make something even when out of position - natural ball striking

Mika has an athletic build and decent technique but it seems to me very 'taught' - she needs time on the ball to do what she does in training - it doesn't really come naturally - if she's slightly caught out, there's not much chance of putting her shot in place. But it's a nice hit, from a strong base.

Arabella was the weakest, again only in my opinion, and she was playing a strong opponent (stronger than Mika's)

The 2009-er didn't impress too much - very solid - made lots of balls - and I know she's only 12 so has time to add strength and penetration - but not as good as I was expecting, compared with others who've been highly touted

DavidC · Tennis legend

On day 1 Mika and Isabelle won both their singles while Arabella won 1 and lost 1. Liam won his singles but Mark lost his. As a result Mika and Isabelle would qualify for the semis if they win their match tomorrow

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

There was the most ridiculous/upsetting/daft situation in Isabelle's second match

Her Algerian opponent loses the first set and has a problem with her back. She's crying, she can't bend down to pick up her racket, she tries three times and can't, the umpire comes down and talks to her, the physio is called, it all takes about 10-15 mins - and YET the girl continues in the second set

She then spend the majority of the second set crying, and yet she can run fine in the points, and the two women in her camp come to talk to her, some tournament referee comes on court, it's the most interrupted set ever, with tears, and pain (maybe) and what have you, and yet the match carried on to the end and Isabelle was supposed to just deal with it (which she did brilliantly - quite hard-nosed about it all, to be honest, and she was quite right)

So either:

(1) the girl was genuinely in pain - in which case, she should have defaulted and what on earth were her parents/camp doing insisting she carry on?

or

(2) the girl is known for basically breaking down and crying as soon as she starts to lose, and it's always a big drama - in which case, she should not be allowed to behave like that, it's out of order and she should have been taken off the court

dodrade · Futures qualifying

How come Hannah didn't enter?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

dodrade wrote:
How come Hannah didn't enter?

Not sure but presumably because she is miles above the others - and she was still playing the doubles main draw

DavidC · Tennis legend

Isabelle squeaks through a match tiebreak to win her group. Hannah would have had to reach the final of one of two designated U14events in the UK in early June to have claimed a place in this event.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Mika played her Roehampton final opponent from Romania to decide her group, but couldn't repeat her win, losing 10-3 in the match tiebreak. Mark also finished second in his group with 2 wins today, while Liam and Arabella won 1 match each in their groups. So just Isabelle through to the semis.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Pleased to see Izzie progress

As above, I thought she was the best natural ball striker of the players and also had a commendable ability to re-focus when she needed to

I found a little article about her (admittedly from a couple of years ago)

www.hanhamandlongwellgreenvoice.co.uk/izzie,11,-sets-her-sights-on-tennis-success

Mika should have won her match today - she lost about 9 points on the trot in the tie-break - but it was pretty close as a match and she did well

Ceban is obviously an interesting player, given his height (over 6 ft, someone said?) and the advantages that gives him (although of course, he might have finished growing and the others will catch up)

TW18 · Lower Club Player

I really like the way Isabelle Britton moves - graceful and a natural. Didn't see any of the boys' matches, unfortunately.

Does anyone know why the semi-final draw was swapped around? The draw looks like it should have been the winners of groups A and B play each other and the winners of groups C and D play each other, but that now doesn't seem to be the case.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

TW18 wrote:
I really like the way Isabelle Britton moves - graceful and a natural. Didn't see any of the boys' matches, unfortunately.

Does anyone know why the semi-final draw was swapped around? The draw looks like it should have been the winners of groups A and B play each other and the winners of groups C and D play each other, but that now doesn't seem to be the case.

Hi and welcome TW18 - always nice to have others who are at the real 'niche' end of tennis - the U14s

I don't know if the draw was 'swapped round' or if it was just mis-presented in the original file (which, tbh, wasn't in classic draw form, unless I missed one)

OR whether it was re-done in order for the two Romanian girls not to play each other? Although that doesn't make sense if she was due to play the other Romanian girl originally, from how it looked

For normal draws, you can have A v D and B v C, which is the symmetrical approach, or A v B and C v D (the linear approach) - from my experience, both are acceptable (I've never seen A v C and B v D)

Soare played well against Mika, especially at the end. But not amazing. Izzie will have her chance.

NB Just to note that Scarlette Hetherington, the French girl with English dad and Australian mum whose been mentioned here several times, played the event but lost her three matches

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Certainly the A v D and B v C theyve ended with in semis makes sense seeding wise - A had the top seed, B second seed, C third and so on.

I think it was just strangely presented in the way the tables have been shown flowing into the knockout stage.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Btw - what status does this u14 event have ? It isnt showing Wimbledon app as a draw
In the drop down - is it a side event or an official event ie winner is a Wilmbledon champ for the rest of their life ?