The first week of the back to back Liverpool tournaments starts this week with J30 and a TE event at the same. Qualifying for the TE is on the Wirral as the site cannot cope with the numbers.
I'm planning to get down most days and I see some top GB players entered for TE. Quite a lot of the J30 players are fairly new to me.
With the caveat that Rose would give you a far more informed view
In the J30, in the boys, I'd definitely want to see Ollie Knight, if for no other reason than I believe he's Megan's brother and suddenly playing a bit of good tennis
You've also got the LTA elite trio of Scott Watson, Eric Lorimer and Niall P-B, who presumably are on your list already but, just in case they're not, must be some of the most interesting boys to keep an eye out for
In the girls, again, personally, I'd want to see Emilija Lebedevaite, simply because she's just taken up GBR tennis nationality and I don't know her at all and she's reasonably well ranked
Annabel Wong has just moved up a level with the LTA and is obviously well thought of so maybe one worth going over to see
Just personally, I've never seen Casey Mauro play, so would like to see her, as well as Lucy Bear, and always keep an eye on Isabella Britton,
However, the more interesting are probably in the Tennis Europe event, that's certainly got a rich list of players in it
As well as a 14U TE this week, there has been a national 16U and 18U grade 2 this weekend and a lot of players you would expect to see in qualifying played that (FYI Alisha Ndukwu won the 18 girls, Rose Clifton the 16U girls, Ferran Redza 18U boys and Jaydan Mitchell 16U boys) meaning qualifying numbers for the J30 were low and the qualifying standard not as high as normal.
Annabel Wong is someone Ive always rated. Always part of GB teams until her injury. Great athlete and ball striker.
Casey Mauro,in my opinion,hits too much in the air. By that I mean shes in the air and off the ground at contact, I prefer to see a solid base and rotation.
Emilija is solid, not much else Ive seen from her.
Lucy Bear Im not a fan of. Good ball striker but not outstanding and line calls need some work.
I dont think Isabelle Britton has lived up to the promise she showed at 12/13 years old when she was part of the NAGP programme and was representing GB. Bath were hailing her (and Amalia Widdowson) as the next big things but hasnt worked out that way. Having said that, theres still a lot to like and its not too late.
Boys - definitely the 3 2010 boys from the National Academy . Rafe Samuel (Toby Samuels younger brother) also worth a watch but can be up and down
In TE U14 I notice Frederick fabricius qualified after winning against the Spanish 5th Q seed. Hermione korpanec davies and Isabella rebel also qualified, along with other Brits who are new to me.
Joe Mazingham won a tight and long match, I've seen him play better. Niall put up a good fight against Harry Abel, but the top seed was too strong. Scott Watson came out all guns playing with winners ances aces at the start of the match, but then struggled to keep the same levels and made a lot of errors against a useful Italian. He did sneak though in the tie break. Ollie Knight was a bit lightweight and lost comfortably- dad was watching. Eric Lorimer played very well to come back from a set down to get past Billy Moxon. Rafe Samuel impressed in his win and I really enjoy Kouros when he plays as he mixes his game up beautifully.
On the ladies side, the two players that stood out were Isabella Britton and Daisy Wootton. Nehir Tuna will be a danger with her solid groundstrokes and the way she moves opponents round. Emilia hits a flat ball and looks solid and will do well at this level. Lucy Bear won easily despite when I watched the first couple of games the level was disappointing, but they did step it up. Annabel Wong is tall and powerful and did well to get through in 3. Fran Tye played very solid to defeat a disappointing seed in Casey, who does as Rose says hits a lot with either one or both feet off the ground.
-- Edited by paulisi on Monday 4th of November 2024 07:35:36 PM
Joe Mazingham won a tight and long match, I've seen him play better. Niall put up a good fight against Harry Abel, but the top seed was too strong. Scott Watson came out all guns playing with winners ances aces at the start of the match, but then struggled to keep the same levels and made a lot of errors against a useful Italian. He did sneak though in the tie break. Ollie Knight was a bit lightweight and lost comfortably- dad was watching. Eric Lorimer played very well to come back from a set down to get past Billy Moxon. Rafe Samuel impressed in his win and I really enjoy Kouros when he plays as he mixes his game up beautifully.
On the ladies side, the two players that stood out were Isabella Britton and Daisy Wootton. Nehir Tuna will be a danger with her solid groundstrokes and the way she moves opponents round. Emilia hits a flat ball and looks solid and will do well at this level. Lucy Bear won easily despite when I watched the first couple of games the level was disappointing, but they did step it up. Annabel Wong is tall and powerful and did well to get through in 3. Fran Tye played very solid to defeat a disappointing seed in Casey, who does as Rose says hits a lot with either one or both feet off the ground.
-- Edited by paulisi on Monday 4th of November 2024 07:35:36 PM
I forgot to mention Daisy. I really like her. She was part of the winter cup team. Still a bit too inconsistent but when shes playing well shes a pleasure to watch
Nehir is a full time player at Bath and trains with Izzie Britton
-- Edited by Rose on Monday 4th of November 2024 08:12:05 PM
Really pleased to hear that Isabella Britton was performing well
As Rose said, her trajectory has been rather disappointing since age 13 or so
But the skills she had at age 13 can't have disappeared which is why, as above, I always keep an eye on her because development is sometimes patchy, and maybe it'll all click again....
Daisy is an interesting player, plays very well when she's on song and is young enough that problems of consistency don't really matter yet
The girls did a grand job overall getting rid of the 'peskies' :)
2nd seed Nehir Tuna is the only non-Brit left in the draw
The other six all met their doom in R1 :)
The boys also did well - only two non-Brits left in R2 and given there were three Italian boys in R1, we had to let ONE of them win, really, to be hospitable
Wins for Isabelle Britton, Lucy Bear, Abi Redman, Nehir Tuna(Sophie J had to retire after turning ankle), Eloise Newberry, Isabelle Moss and Fran Tye
Annabel Wong is a set up on Karina Kiss.