Girls: 2024 U16/U18 Junior National Championships, NTC, acrylic (Weeks 14/15)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Girls: 2024 U16/U18 Junior National Championships, NTC, acrylic (Weeks 14/15)

Rose · Lower Club Player

Coup Droit wrote:
A pretty strange semi between Isabella and Tegan

Isabella has a far more assured technique - her coach should be really proud and use her as his/her poster girl - really solid and correct

And she was walking it - until she went a little AWOL and then it all suddenly went into reverse

Tegan has lovely timing, picks the ball up off her feet really well

Her serve is really poor, though, and other bits need work

But presumably she's working on it, and it's certainly made a lot or progress from a couple of years ago

Again, like the boys, it was really close in the third and a real shame that the downpour came at 5-4 and the match didn't get to finish as it should have done

Didn't see Hollie's match but was pretty confident she'd win so I was more interested in Isabella v Tegan

I got it wrong. I thought Freya would win. I like her game and think she has improved a lot since being abroad. She has also been working a lot with a sports psychologist and it shows in her mentality and behaviour on court.

Shows how little I know!!!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Rose wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
A pretty strange semi between Isabella and Tegan

Isabella has a far more assured technique - her coach should be really proud and use her as his/her poster girl - really solid and correct

And she was walking it - until she went a little AWOL and then it all suddenly went into reverse

Tegan has lovely timing, picks the ball up off her feet really well

Her serve is really poor, though, and other bits need work

But presumably she's working on it, and it's certainly made a lot or progress from a couple of years ago

Again, like the boys, it was really close in the third and a real shame that the downpour came at 5-4 and the match didn't get to finish as it should have done

Didn't see Hollie's match but was pretty confident she'd win so I was more interested in Isabella v Tegan
I got it wrong. I thought Freya would win. I like her game and think she has improved a lot since being abroad. She has also been working a lot with a sports psychologist and it shows in her mentality and behaviour on court.
Shows how little I know!!!

Well, I thought Isabella would beat Tegan biggrin

Both matches were pretty close, though - we weren't far off, Rose smile

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

looks like Hollie got a walkover - any idea what happened to Tegan?

Well done to Hollie on becoming national champion.

Presumably she is also in the U18 event next week?

Lambda · Challenger level

Tegan was announced as being ill overnight. She didn't make it to the presentation ceremony either.

Hollie has a wild card to next week's 18U.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

What a shame for Tegan....
Hope she's OK
Don't think she's entered for the U18 either, whoch is slightly strange
I think hollie has a MD WC, no?

DavidC · Tennis legend

Under 18 qualifying starts tomorrow with the draw here (Ruby Cooling is top seed)

LTA preview is here and live scores here

DavidC · Tennis legend

Wildcards on offer are:

Winner:

Wild card for Wimbledon Championships Qualifying
Wild card for Wimbledon Junior Championships Main draw
Wild card for 1 x ITF W35 event (April/May 2024) Main draw
Wild card for ITF W100 Ilkley (June 2024) Main draw
Wild card for ITF J300 Roehampton Main draw

Losing finalist:

Wild card for Wimbledon Junior Championships Main draw
Wild card for 1 x ITF W35 event (April/May 2024) Main draw
Wild card for ITF W100 Ilkley (June 2024) Qualifying
Wild card for ITF J300 Roehampton Main draw

Doubles winners:

Wild card for Wimbledon Junior Championships Main draw

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Lambda wrote:
Streams for qualifying matches are on LTA's secondary YouTube channel. Main draw streams will be on their main YouTube channel from Monday.

Just to boost this, as the qualies for the U18s has kicked off

DavidC · Tennis legend

At the moment live scores are being shown on the same link as for the under 16s (here) rather than the one promised by the LTA (wins for top qualifying seeds Ruby Cooling and Marelie Raath (just via a MTB against Lara Savic)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

THe main draw is now out

With (in my view) no problems for Mimi or Mika or Hannah in their quarters

But Isabelle Lacy and Hep are in the same quarter, and with Hollie Smart too

I dipped into some of the quali matches today, which was nice, but nothing really of any note to say

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

In the FQR today, relatively easy wins for Elizabeth Evans and Mia Wainwright

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Followed by Isabella Wong, Erin Pearce, Amelie Brookes, and Sophya Devas

9vicman · Satellite level

Coup Droit wrote:
THe main draw is now out

With (in my view) no problems for Mimi or Mika or Hannah in their quarters

But Isabelle Lacy and Hep are in the same quarter, and with Hollie Smart too

I dipped into some of the quali matches today, which was nice, but nothing really of any note to say

It's nice to see all the top girls competing. When growing up, the national junior championships were such a pivotal part of the year with covered (Queen's), hard (Wimbledon) and grass (Eastbourne) court championships. And then in 1991, they switched to one per age group, but still relatively high profile. And there were also regular winter indoor junior circuit events.

Now the national junior events seem quite low key. And yet we are producing more top players than the 80s/90s. Curious as to how important national junior events are to a player's development or whether better to test themselves against other opposition.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

9vicman wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
THe main draw is now out

With (in my view) no problems for Mimi or Mika or Hannah in their quarters

But Isabelle Lacy and Hep are in the same quarter, and with Hollie Smart too

I dipped into some of the quali matches today, which was nice, but nothing really of any note to say
It's nice to see all the top girls competing. When growing up, the national junior championships were such a pivotal part of the year with covered (Queen's), hard (Wimbledon) and grass (Eastbourne) court championships. And then in 1991, they switched to one per age group, but still relatively high profile. And there were also regular winter indoor junior circuit events.
Now the national junior events seem quite low key. And yet we are producing more top players than the 80s/90s. Curious as to how important national junior events are to a player's development or whether better to test themselves against other opposition.

From the little bit I know, it seems that 10 years ago, say, the National Championships were nothing events - the top players never took part

And then the LTA realised that it looked stupid that the U18 British National Champion was some girl who was about 5th best in the country, and by a country margin

Embarrassing even

And so there was a policy move to prioritise the Nationals which meant (a) telling all their players who received LTA help and funding that they were expected to participate, it was part of the deal, and (b) giving far more generous benes i.e. wildcard into Wimbly adult qualis for the U18 winner, and all the other tiers below that - it's a big incentive now

Carrot and stick

And it seems to me that they've been very successful - the girls event this year, for instance, has got other forums, worldwide, talking about it - everyone wants to see who gets bragging rights - all five top players are there