tennis Fixture

Junior Open Singles Championships 2007

Junior Singles Championships

The Queen's Club

24 - 26 August 2007
By Paul Weaver

Once again the British Junior Championships were held over the last weekend of August at The Queen's Club. This event attracted nearly 50 young hopefuls, reflecting the continued strong interest in the game at the junior level.

Although the event was dominated by very strong contingents from Seacourt & Prested, there were also entries this year from a wider variety of clubs including two boys who made the trip over from the Paris club and one entry from the Tuxedo Club in America.

The Under 12s section was wide open this year and the round robin leagues eventually produced finalists Will Hunter (Prested) and Giles Gunning (Seacourt). In the final Giles took control right from the very first point and went on to a comfortable win 6-1, an amazing performance from someone who has only played the game for nine months. The Dedans was amazed to see such power, determination and technique from such a young player.

The under 14s final was an all Seacourt affair with last year's beaten finalist Ben Wall playing the fast improving Alex Turner. This match was actually much closer than the 6/2 6/1 score suggests with many hard fought games.

This year it was the Under 16s section that was the most difficult to call with the top seven players divided by a handicap difference of only five points. John Lumley (Holyport) won his way through from the lower group to play in the top group alongside Christian Whittaker (Oratory) and the 2 French players Quint Mandil and Mathieu Sarlangue. Some extremely close matches eventually lead to a final between John and Mathieu. This turned out to be the most exciting match of the day with John winning the first set 6/5 and then giving away a 5/1 lead in the second set before finally winning it 6/5 on his seventh match point!

In the Under 18s section the quality in depth was much improved from last year with the final four players all in with a chance. After some very close matches Conor Medlow (Seacourt) and Josh Dodgson (Seacourt) reached the final at the expense of Claire Vigrass (Prested) and newcomer Mark Mathias (Hyde). Conor, who is now down to a 15 handicap at age 16, played superbly to dominate the final, winning 6/1 6/1.

The girls plate finals were also held with wins for Tara Lumley at under 14 and Madeline Grant at under 16.

2007 will be remembered as a year when the quality in depth of junior tennis really started to show through. None of the sections were easy and the skill and ability of the youngsters bodes well for the future of the game.