Boys & Girls: 2023 U14 World Junior Finals, Prostejov, Czech Republic, clay (Week 32)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Boys & Girls: 2023 U14 World Junior Finals, Prostejov, Czech Republic, clay (Week 32)

DavidC · Tennis legend

The opening day has been rain dominated, but the boys are closing in on victory against Slovakia (a team they beat in the European finals). Rhys won 6-1 6-3 and Mark leads 7-5 4-3

The girls are in the worst possible group - created because Slovakia upset the Czech Republic in European qualifying, despite the Czechs having 3 top 8 ranked players. The Czechs are therefore unseeded, despite being one of the tournament favourites. So far only one match has been completed in their tie against Slovakia, with Edie losing 4-6 0-6 (Slovakia beat them in the European finals)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Mark won 7-5 6-4 to secure a 2-0 winning lead for the boys (USA lead Peru 2-0 in the other tie in their group) whilst the girls appear to have finished for the day trailing 0-1

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

If Im reading the clunky itf site correctly, it looks like we are up 2-0 on Peru in the boys, giving us two wins out of two.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

DavidC wrote:
The opening day has been rain dominated, but the boys are closing in on victory against Slovakia (a team they beat in the European finals). Rhys won 6-1 6-3 and Mark leads 7-5 4-3

The girls are in the worst possible group - created because Slovakia upset the Czech Republic in European qualifying, despite the Czechs having 3 top 8 ranked players. The Czechs are therefore unseeded, despite being one of the tournament favourites. So far only one match has been completed in their tie against Slovakia, with Edie losing 4-6 0-6 (Slovakia beat them in the European finals)

Hollie lost the second match - I saw some of the first set which went to a TB and was terribly close. But she ended up losing it and then lost belief a little.

Although I don't think it counted, the girls did win the doubles though, 11-9 in the MTB, which must have felt goof

DavidC · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
If Im reading the clunky itf site correctly, it looks like we are up 2-0 on Peru in the boys, giving us two wins out of two.

Yes the boys completed a 3-0 win over Slovakia and currently lead Peru 2-0 with wins for Rhys (6-3 6-0) and Mark (1-6 6-2 10-7) so are in a good position to qualify for the 1-8 playoffs. The USA and Slovakia are currently 1-1 - if USA win then both the USA and GBR are through

The girls lost 2-1 to Slovakia (Hollie losing 7-6 6-3) but winning the doubles. Their match against the Czech Republic appears to have been halted, and they trail 0-1 (Edie losing 2-6 3-6). Barring a miracle they will end up in the 9-16 play-offs

DavidC · Tennis legend

The rain has rather messed up the schedule so that matches have often been played over 2 days and 2 courts, making the scores viewable on the order of play tab on the link in the first post tricky to translate into matches. It looks as if they have been able to catch up to the point where they can draw the play-offs this evening.

The boys have won their group narrowly in a 3 way tie for wins. They lost 2-1 to USA today (Rhys winning his singles but Mark lost) but USA had previously lost to Slovakia, so our two 3-0 wins stood us in good shape to top the group ahead of the USA. We should therefore face one of the second placed teams in other groups in the 1st to 8th play-offs

The girls did better than I expected, but still finished bottom of their tough group. Hollie romped through her singles against the Czechs, and they also took the doubles for a 2-1 upset, meaning all 4 nations could theoretically qualify for the 1st - 8th play-offs. However singles defeats to the American Penickova twins meant a loss to USA and 4th place in the group, so they will play in the 9th - 16th playoffs tomorrow

DavidC · Tennis legend

A mixed day in Prostejov. The boys drew France in the 1st-8th play-offs - the team who beat them in the European Summer Cup. Although Rhys was able to reverse his loss to Jules Rimbaud, winning 6-2 7-6 Mark lost again to Daniel Jade (Les Petits As finalist) 4-6 6-2 6-3 and the doubles went to the French pair 6-3 6-2. So they will be playing for 5th - 8th tomorrow

The girls were drawn against Paraguay in the 9th - 16th place play-offs, and after Lara lost 1-6 4-6 Hollie sailed through 3 & 0, followed by a comfortable 6-1 6-2 doubles, so they will play for 9th - 12th tomorrow

DavidC · Tennis legend

The girls saw off Morocco today (singles wins for Edie and Hollie) so will play-off for 9th/10th. Mark was missing from the boys team that went down 2-0 to Turkey, so they will play-off for 7th/8th

DavidC · Tennis legend

The boys finished 7th after a 2-1 win against Brazil (wins for Mark in singles and doubles with Rhys) The Czech Republic won the event.

The girls finished 9th after a 2-1 victory over Japan (Hollie winning her singles and partnering Edie in the doubles). Again the Czech Republic won the event, despite their one defeat against Great Britain in the group stages.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Apologies - I also noticed Tennis Europe has a Masters for the TE tour in Monte Carlo in early Nov, both under 14 and 16

www.tenniseurope.org/ranking/ranking.aspx

Apparently the top 6 in each race qualify plus the respective European championships finalists. From Britain, Mark Ceban is in top spot in the under 14 boys, Hollie Smart 8th in the u14 girls.

Is Mark Ceban likely to play in this event , does anyone think?

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
Apologies - I also noticed Tennis Europe has a Masters for the TE tour in Monte Carlo in early Nov, both under 14 and 16

www.tenniseurope.org/ranking/ranking.aspx

Apparently the top 6 in each race qualify plus the respective European championships finalists. From Britain, Mark Ceban is in top spot in the under 14 boys, Hollie Smart 8th in the u14 girls.

Is Mark Ceban likely to play in this event , does anyone think?

Appears no Brits will be taking part in the Tennis Europe Masters https://www.tenniseurope.org/file/934680/?dl=1

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I'd half expected Hollie Smart to drop out - she's played a lot of tennis these past two weeks - and could well have been a bit tired at Loughborough this week

But I thought Mark would want to be there - maybe he'd got his sights on 'higher' things

DavidC · Tennis legend

I am also surprised by Mark dropping out. Hollie may have only made the cut at the last minute, because 2 of the top 6 dropped out, so may not have planned to go. Mark though will have had to confirm his availability before last weekend's announcement, so perhaps he has picked up a niggle this week.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

DavidC wrote:
I am also surprised by Mark dropping out. Hollie may have only made the cut at the last minute, because 2 of the top 6 dropped out, so may not have planned to go. Mark though will have had to confirm his availability before last weekend's announcement, so perhaps he has picked up a niggle this week.

3 Turkish 14 u boys and 4 Serbian u16 girls in their respective 8 player fields