British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Boys & Girls: 2026 U16 Junior National Championships, NTC, acrylic (Week 13)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Niall Pickerd-Barua v Neo Armus was a very engaging match

Both the same age, there's no other similarity whatsoever

Niall absolutely looks the part, and has obviously had SO much coaching

Strong boy and hits a nice ball

But Neo (far leggier) kept dinking the ball around, popping it long, pushing it short, sticking it in the corner, and then just in the middle of the court down the middle - and very occasionally unleashing a respectable forehand

It was David and Goliath (there's about a thousand points of difference in ranking)

And the outsider won, 7-5 in the third

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

In the girls, the match-up of the 2012 girls yesterday was a fascinating match

Both similar morphology (of the very slender, leggy variety

), Ginny Chen is technically a bit better. As per yesterday, Kate Murray has quite a lot to work on. But I've never been hugely excited by Ginny's tennis. And it was a very tight match.

In the end, the 2012 qualifier (Kate) defeated the 2012 wildcard (Ginny) 6-4 in the third set

'Competent, proficient' Radostina got the better of big-hitting 2012 Bella Rebel. Again in three sets. Which is the 'perfect' score - proficiency wins, but the youngster has good things to take away from it.

Alice Moffat v Tanishka Naveen was the best quality match overall, I would say. I hope Alice goes onto US college tennis - her tennis just has the 'look' of a good college player. Will follow Tanishka (who's younger) a bit more now.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The Loughborough 'elite' are having a bit of a tough time of it

Dani Britton won easily enough - but she's 2010 and the top seed by far - (and Leah actually played quite well, in the bits I saw)

But Milica lost yesterday

And Grace Watson lost rather easily today, against Judy Zhang, same age, who came through qualis

Grace looks very 'tight' when she plays, it looks as though she's thinking about every step, every backswing, every follow-through

Young April is also currently a break down against equally young Katy Murray (although breaks don't mean that much at this level)

DF · Tennis legend

The dynamic Radostina has taken the first set off Liv Zingg wink

Rose · Lower Club Player

Am really disappointed to see how Grace is at the moment. Have always been a big fan but she seems to have gone backwards.

Thought Leah played really well, just needs to cut down the unforced errors. Dani played ok - and I think she will win overall - but nothing about her game ever looks long term to me. Her placement is brilliant and she really understands the game but I just can see her doing much on the adult tour.

Liv and Millica have never over impressed me much. Again, I think they will do well at juniors but not so much afterwards. I think Judy would have been a better national academy choice.

April I really really like

Hermione is playing well at the moment. Also had a great win against Izzy Britton a couple of weeks ago.

Radostina is someone whose tennis I like and Ive always been a big fan of Annabel

-- Edited by Rose on Tuesday 31st of March 2026 12:15:02 PM

JonH · Tennis legend

only 3 of the boys seeds left in - and one of those is a set down and in a second set TB (Jan Janda from Yorkshire). The 3 seeds left are the top 3, carnage lower down the seedings.

I guess seedings below the top one or two dont mean as much at this level, although the girls have come through (7 of 8 into the last 8)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Jan pulled through in the end

Boys QF

(1) Eric Lorimer v Brennan Coletta
(3) Veer Tumber v (Q) Neo Armus
(Q) Harry Mitchell v (WC) Isaac Sallu
Samuel Histiuc v (2) Jan Janda

Girls QF

(1) Daniella Britton v (6) Daisy Wootton
(3) Liv Zingg v (5) Hermione Korpanec Davies
(7) April Sackflame v (4) Sofia Tatu
(Q) Yanziye Zhang v (2) Annabel Wong

Rose · Lower Club Player

Not the nationals but not sure where else to post. There is a grade 2 (lower national level) tournament at Wrexham this week. Sahara B won the final 7/5 1/6 10-7 against Kaya S. Sahara in particular took out some good 2012 players on the way to the final

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Tx, Rose

She's a touch stroppy at times (which is not really a criticism) but Sahara is definitely a great prospect

As, indeed, in April, I agree with you - she continues to really impress and both have been on my 'top pick' list for a couple of years now

Today, she struggled slightly at first but mainly because she was going for slightly too ambitious shots - her inside out forehand and her forehand down the line kept going wide

But everything about her tennis looks like proper WTA adult tennis in the making and she had to be quite mature today to turn it round - she could easily have lost that second set if she'd wobbled

i've never seen Kaya play live so I'm waiting for that

(Never been a fan of Liv's tennis either)

Looking forward to the boys tomorrow - there's some names there that are new to me, as well as following my pet watch of the week, Neo Armus, who makes me smile.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 31st of March 2026 09:58:08 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Age matters at this time in their tennis careers - so just to fill in birthdates - net:

2 x first half of 2010

1 second half of 2010
2 x first half of 2011
2 x last quarter of 2011
1 x first half of 2012

Girls QF

(1) Daniella Britton (Nov 2010) v (6) Daisy Wootton (March 2010)

(3) Liv Zingg (June 2011) v (5) Hermione Korpanec Davies (Oct 2011)

(7) April Sackflame (April 2012) v (4) Sofia Tatu (April 2011)

(Q) Yanziye Zhang (Oct 2011) v (2) Annabel Wong (April 2010)

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Wednesday 1st of April 2026 01:58:55 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

All the boys are last year U16s, all born in 2010

JonH · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Age matters at this time in their tennis careers - so just to fill in birthdates - net:

2 x first half of 2010
2 x first half of 2011
3 x last quarter of 2011
1 x first half of 2012

Girls QF

(1) Daniella Britton (Nov 2011) v (6) Daisy Wootton (March 2010)

(3) Liv Zingg (June 2011) v (5) Hermione Korpanec Davies (Oct 2011)

(7) April Sackflame (April 2012) v (4) Sofia Tatu (April 2011)

(Q) Yanziye Zhang (Oct 2011) v (2) Annabel Wong (April 2010)

The favourites all progressed to the semis apart from Sofia who lost by retirement to April after losing the opening set

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

A very close match, with nice tennis from both, between Hermione and Liv, with Liv playing the important points just slightly better

No contest between Dani and Daisy

Shame for Sofia who did very well, serving underarm and some pat/slice overarm serves - and April who did very well dealing with it, as it takes some experience/maturity

Annabel is that much older and it does show

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

JonH wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Age matters at this time in their tennis careers - so just to fill in birthdates - net:

2 x first half of 2010
2 x first half of 2011
3 x last quarter of 2011
1 x first half of 2012

Girls QF

(1) Daniella Britton (Nov 2011) v (6) Daisy Wootton (March 2010)

(3) Liv Zingg (June 2011) v (5) Hermione Korpanec Davies (Oct 2011)

(7) April Sackflame (April 2012) v (4) Sofia Tatu (April 2011)

(Q) Yanziye Zhang (Oct 2011) v (2) Annabel Wong (April 2010)
The favourites all progressed to the semis apart from Sofia who lost by retirement to April after losing the opening set

I looke at someone else's post and got myself all confused - Dani Britton, of course, should have been Nov 2010

Which also changes the little summary above, obviously - SORRY

Original corrected