9U Girls North Area Finals Report

The girls’ team of Daisy, Allegra, Yingnan, Lavanya and Sarah travelled to Nottingham Tennis Centre to play in the North 9 and under County Cup Finals on Saturday 20th April to compete against the counties of Cheshire, Yorkshire, West of Scotland and Warwickshire.

Each match consisted of 4 singles and 2 doubles matches – each match being a FAST4 set with sudden death deuce.

The girls had a tough opening match against Cheshire. All four girls played their singles at the same time in the new indoor bubble. Daisy played Antonella Netri and despite a good battle she narrowly lost 2/4. Allegra at number two battled back form 1/3 down to force a tie break against Poppy Mucha but again missed out 3/4. Yingnan at number three was up against the harder hitter Nyah Welbeck and lost 1/4 and then Lavanya at number four again fought hard but just missed out 2/4. So, with Cambs trailing 4/0 after the singles the girls put up a good fight in the doubles. Daisy and Allegra lost a tight match which went to a tiebreak at 3/3 but then Sarah making her County Cup debut and Lavanya won their doubles 4/3 7-4 in the tiebreak to secure the one win against Cheshire. The scores were close and on another day the girls might well have won this match.

Next up were the strong Yorkshire team who looked to be favourites at the start of the day. Daisy had a great win against Ala Kaliszewic 4/2 playing some good aggressive tennis and showed great determination. Allegra lost to Amal Khan 1/4, Lavanya playing at number 3 lost to Lizzie Greatorez Hughes 0/4 while Sarah playing her first singles lost to the more consistent Ella-Grace Chan. The girls played some good doubles with Daisy and Allegra winning at number one pair and Sarah and Yingnan putting up a good fight at number two pair just losing 2/4. The overall score was a 4/2 win to Yorkshire.

The third match was against the West of Scotland and the girls all played very well in the singles. Daisy beat Connnie Kerr 4/0; Allegra beat Ava Steel 4/1; Yingnan recorded her first win with a 4/0 score against Hannah Mcgregor and Lavanya won her first match with a 4/0 win over Isla Linning. With the girls winning the singles easily we were hoping for some easy doubles wins but the Scottish girls played very well and forced the Cambs girls to work really hard to get their wins. Daisy and Allegra just won in a tiebreak 4/3 and then Sarah and Lavanya narrowly won their doubles 4/2 to pull of a good 6/0 win.

We were hopeful going into the last match against Warwickshire of another win and the team got off to a great start with Daisy winning 4/0 against Arya Knobbs and the Allegra winning 4/0 against Liberty Quantick. Lavanya was beaten 4/1 by Chloe Wang (who was a very good number four!) and then Yingnan played very well to get to a tiebreak but couldn’t quite close the match out and lost the tiebreak 8-6 to leave the scores 2 all after the singles. Despite a good effort in the doubles both Daisy and Allegra just came up short 2/4 and then Sarah and Lavanya just missed out 2/4 as well leaving Warwickshire as 4/2 overall match winners.

The girls ended up fourth which was a shame as on another day they could have been second, but all certainly fought hard for the County and hopefully the experience will encourage them all to continue to work at their games and want to compete at this level for many years to come.

Thanks to all the parents for their encouragement and support.

Sue Rich, Team Captain