The second week for the British squad tackling Under 14 Category 1 events has proved successful so far. At the Dr Oetker Trophy event in Bucharest, Romania, two rounds have been played to reach the last 16. All our seeded players (Eric Lorimer, Niall Pickerd-Barua, Scott Watson, Daniella Britton and Liv Zingg) are safely through, along with unseeded Isaac Sallu. Liv Zingg has a tough match next against Ofir Manhard, who along with Daniel Baranes (who is also here) led Israel to victory against Liv and Megan Knight in the European Summer Cup under 12 final last year.
In the Tennis Europe Category 1 event in Bucharest we have 5 through to the quarters just as last week. Liv was the one who missed out in round 3 as feared, losing in straight sets to the Israeli prodigy (who had beaten the top seed in the previous round. Scott was pushed to 6-4 in the decider, but Eric, Isaac, Niall and Daniella all had straight sets wins. We have a guaranteed semifinalist as Eric plays Isaac in the quarters.
It's all very well but if Conor is going to follow on his brother's footsteps and not go to US college, he's going to have the devil's own job trying to make a go of it. He's a long way off the level at the moment (age 17) for what he's going to need.
Patrick has been putting up funding pages and what have you, offering bronze, silver and gold investments.The site claims that he's raised well over £100k, which is awesome (if true). So maybe they're good at raising money? But both boys have a rather 'light' game, in my view. I would have thought that, at best, college was the ideal pathway for them....
I like both Israeli girls so interesting to see how they do
Also, Tea Kovacevic is 2nd seed. Tea has just won two J30s - two titles from two appearances (and has only lost one game so far in three matches)
Isaac is a new name to me as well, but clearly one to note as he has beaten TE1 Eric 7-5 5-7 6-1 today. Scott and Niall won in straight sets, so it is Isaac v Scott and Niall v Evan Giurescu (FRA) in the semis in the TE14 Cat 1 event in Bucharest.
Of the Israeli girls Ofir moved on into the semis, but Daniel lost out to Tea, albeit much more closely than Tea's three previous matches. An agonising loss for Daniella 4-6 7-6(4) 7-6(4) to the third seed Maria Pop so British involvement is just in the boys event now.
Thats an impressive scalp from Sallu, well done to him! I wonder if we will hear a lot more from him even after the tournament or whether this is just a one off winning run! He has beaten a couple other seeds too in this tournament
It passed without much comment at the time, but Isaac did defeat Plamen Kolev, then the 8 seed and now ranked 6 in the 14&U, in the Super Category in Sweden in February after getting through qualifying and, according to his tournament review on Instagram, turning up there not knowing he would get in. So this isn't just a one off. He's an Ilkley lad (but let's not tell Jon).
It passed without much comment at the time, but Isaac did defeat Plamen Kolev, then the 8 seed and now ranked 6 in the 14&U, in the Super Category in Sweden in February after getting through qualifying and, according to his tournament review on Instagram, turning up there not knowing he would get in. So this isn't just a one off. He's an Ilkley lad (but let's not tell Jon).
Seems Isaac lives in Burley in Wharfedale, a lovely village/town on the edge of the bigger Ilkley. Was a decent young cricketer for Ilkley and appears to have a brother called Eric who plays a decent level of football for Ilkley Town in the West Riding County League.