14U Girls County Cup Report
The 14 and under girls’ team of Anna, Oli, May, Aditi and Zoe travelled to Lymm Lawn Tennis Club late on Friday 26th April in preparation for 14 and under County Cup Group 1A play off group.
The team were in a group of 6 counties Yorkshire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire, North of Scotland, Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire and this was divided into two groups of 3 counties. Cambs were in a group with North of Scotland and Warwickshire. The format was to play each county in your group and then wherever you finished you played the opposite number from the other group and the winning team then proceeds to the National Finals. All matches were the best of 3 FAST4 sets and the third set a match tiebreak to 10 points. If the matches were 3 rubbers each then a tiebreak shoot out was played – all very exciting and you had to be mentally ready to go from the first ball!
First up for Cambs were North of Scotland. The first two players on court were the number 3 and 4 players – May and Aditi respectively. Aditi at number 4 started slowly but then played well to beat Anna Curtis 4/2, 4/2. On the adjoining court May started very well taking the first set 4/1 against Katherine Cameron but then her opponent found some consistency and defended unbelievably well getting every ball back and won second set 4/2 and then took tiebreak 10-3 so one match a piece after first round. Oli playing at number 2 against Chloe Sanderson won the first set comfortably with some aggressive hard hitting but was forced into a tiebreak in the second set when she raised her game and won this comfortably 7-2. Anna at number one then played a very solid match against Jessica Currie and won 4/2, 4/2 displaying a good variety of shots to mix up the play. Cambs were 3/1 up after the singles. The doubles pairings on Anna and Oli and the Zoe and Aditi were made to work very hard but their Scottish opponent and both lost the first set but both pairs came back strongly in the second sets and forced match tiebreaks! The tie breaks were a little tense but firstly Zoe and Aditi beat Katherine Cameron and Anna Sloan 3/4, 4/1, 10-6 and then Anna and Oli beat Jessica and Chloe 2/4, 4/1, 10-8. This secured a Cambs 5/1 win but the match was very tight all the way through.
Originally the County were only playing one match on the Saturday but with rain forecast for the Sunday the referee decided we would play 2 matches on the Saturday. We then had a 3 hour plus wait while Warwickshire played North of Scotland before we went on to play Warwickshire. Warwickshire just beat North of Scotland on a tiebreak shoot out after the match was tied at 3 rubbers each.
We kept the same singles line up against Warwickshire. Aditi had a tough match at number 4 and lost 3/4 (5) and 2/4 to Mila Angrave. She got off to a slow start enabling her opponent to gain confidence. May bounced back from her earlier loss and beat Julia Zybura with some hard-hitting groundstrokes from the baseline. Oli at number two was very focused in this match and won comfortably against Tanishka Naveen 4/2, 4/1 with aggressive but consistent play and used her powerful serve effectively. Anna at number one looked as if she would have a very hard match but her opponent Jessica Morrison was not feeling well and after Anna won the first set 4/0 her opponent retired. Again, we were 3/1 up after the singles. In the doubles Anna played with May and Oli played with Zoe to try and even the pairings. Both teams started much better and won the first sets comfortably but lost some focus in the second sets and both lost these. Oli and Zoe then raised their games and beat Isla Turner and Julia Zybura 4/1, 3/4 (5) and 10 -1 in the match tie break to secure a winning 4 matches to 1 margin. Anna and May lost their match tiebreak and resulting match to Mila Angrave and Tanishka Naveen 4/1, 2/4, 5-10. Overall, a good 4/2 win but a late 8pm finish! This set the team up for the final match against Yorkshire on the Sunday knowing a win would take them through to the finals.
The rain stayed away on the Sunday, so the girls had an early 9.30 start against Yorkshire. We kept the same singles line up but this time all four matches started at the same time, so the captain was running from court to court to encourage and keep all the scores! Aditi played her best match of the weekend and beat Oliva Jackowska 4/1, 4/3 (4). She got off to a much better start and hit the ball cleaner and with more purpose and this win gave the team a great start. May played her best match of the weekend as well having gained confidence from her win the day before and worked hard to beat Roberta Gaskell 4/1, 4/0. Oli played an awesome first set against Amelia Baranska and won this 4/0 but then made too many unforced errors as her opponent bounced back to win the second 4/2. Oli regained her composure and fought hard to take the tiebreak 10-8 to give the county a 3/0 lead. Anna playing at number one had a really tough opponent in Sevil Parviz and despite some great play she lost the first set 2/4 but bounced back with some extremely long rallies to win the second 8/6 in the tiebreak to take the set 4/3. So, the match went into a third set tiebreak – Sevil hit 4 winners to start off and took a commanding 6/1 lead. Anna played some great tennis and fought really well to get back to lead 8/6 but then after an overrule on a line call just missed out 8-10 – leaving the match poised 3/1 to Cambs going into the doubles.
After much thought and in case the match went into a shoot-out, we opted for the pairings of Anna and May and Oli and Aditi. Anna and May got off to a great start against Amelia and Sevil and took the first set 4/2. Meanwhile Oli and Aditi lost the first set 3/4 (3) to Roberta and Olivia – all very close! Amelia and Sevil raised their games and took the second set 4/0 – now one set all. Oli and Aditi raised their games and won the second set 4/1 – both matches now going into a match tiebreak and if we lost both matches a tiebreak shoot out. Warwickshire’s first pair beat Anna and May 10-5 in the tiebreak to win 2/4, 4/0 10-5. It was all up to Oli and Aditi and they played a good tiebreak to get 8/4 up only to get a bit nervous and the odd double fault coming in 8/5, 8/6 and then 9/6 to 9/7, 9/8 and now very tense and after a good exchange Oli finished the point with a winning smash -10-8 and a 4/2 win. Cambs through to the National Finals 10th to 12th May in Nottingham.
Well done team and great effort from everyone playing their part in getting to the finals. Thank you, Nicole, for all the transport and support. The players certainly played with pride for the County and were a credit to Cambridgeshire Tennis. Good luck in the finals.
Sue Rich, Captain
