The 4 age related European Summer Cups start tomorrow, with the British under 14s in France. Often our teams have been weakened by our top girls being selected for Roehampton. On this occasion it is possible that Dasha Jones comes into that category (currently an alternate for Roehampton), or she may be injured. The team as a result is Ginny Chen, Isabella Rebel and April Sackflame They are top seeded in their qualifying group, taking on Belgium first
The under 14 girls had a scare, as April lost the opening singles 7-5 in the third, but Ginny won 0 & 1 and teamed up with Bella to take the doubles 2 & 2. As a result they take on Turkiye tomorrow, with qualification for the European finals at stake.
If yesterday was a scare then there were probably alarm bells ringing today as the under 14 girls needed a 10-8 match tiebreak doubles win by Bella/April to seal their place in the European finals. Bella won in straights before Ginny lost in 3 to the Turkish number 1. They play host nation France tomorrow for seeding rights.
After two scares in reaching the finals perhaps unsurprisingly the under 14 girls were unable to claim a seeding spot. This time they lost 2-1 to France with April winning and Bella losing their singles, before Ginny & April lost the decisive doubles 6-3 6-3, Their finals start on Monday in Italy, with 6 of the 8 finalists making it through as European qualifiers for the World Juniors in August
No joy against Germany, so the only path left to qualify for the World Juniors is to win two consecutive matches to finish 5th, starting with Czechia, who have lost their number 1 ranked player since the qualifying event, but still look stronger on paper.
U14 QF
(4) Germany 3 GBR 0
April Sackflame lost to Carla Pollmueller 3-6 1-6
Ginny Chen lost to Daria Strogalshchikova 0-6 4-6
Chen/Sackflame lost to Strogalshchikova/Urga 2-4 5-4(7) 8-10
The faint hopes of qualification for the World Juniors were snuffed out today. They have a rematch with France to avoid bottom spot in the finals
5th - 8th place play-off
GBR 0 Czechia 3
April Sackflame lost to Kristyna Nikodymova 3-6 2-6
Isabella Rebel lost to Nicole Kurylova 4-6 2-6
Chen/Rebel lost to Dudlova/Kurylova 3-5 5-4(6) [4-10]
The under 12 girls opened their round robin qualifying group with a 3-0 win against Hungary. Victoria Ariana Florea and Sahara Baptiste won their singles matches, and Sahara teamed up with Isla Skeates in the doubles. Tomorrow's match against Latvia should decide top place in the group as Latvia also won their opener 3-0 without dropping a set against Estonia
The under 12 girls beat Latvia 3-0 with straight sets wins again for Victoria and Sahara, so win their group (they play bottom team Estonia tomorrow) and therefore avoid the strong host nation Czechia in the decisive matches on Sunday (first in one group plays second in the other)
The under 12 girls concluded the round robin phase with another 3-0 (6sets-0) win over Estonia (Victoria and Isla playing singles). They therefore play Bulgaria, who came second in the other group in tomorrow's qualification decider
