Avon 10U Girls at LTA County Cup National Finals

Captains Report

We were lucky to have Bath as the location for the U10 Nationals, where both the girls and boys competition was held. Our girls had some of the best team spirit I’ve seen, relentless support and cheering for their team mates – over 3 long days I didn’t once have to ask them to support more or be more engaged with their team mates matches. It makes it really exciting to see in the future what they can achieve as a team!

We had a tough draw! A box with Lancashire (came 2nd in the whole competition), Middlesex (came 3rd in the competition) and then Staffordshire.

We started on Friday with Middlesex! Emilia was amazing at 4, losing but handled being first on court brilliantly! At 3 Eleanor came on and played some brilliant tennis and getting a win! Emma fought a tough battle at 2, but eventually losing and Eloise again had a tough one at 1! We went in 3 – 1 down into the doubles. Emilia and Eloise at 2 lost and then Eleanor and Emma from a set down came back to win 10 – 7 in the 3rd set tiebreak! Really exciting to see them come back in a challenging environment! 4 – 2 to Middlesex!

We started the singles against Staffordshire, Emilia getting a comfortable win, on Saturday morning we continued the winning run with a win from Eleanor, Emma lost at 2 and Eloise stormed through at 1! 3 – 1 up going in to doubles. Emilia and Eloise and Eleanor and Emma all had convincing doubles wins leaving us with a 5 – 1 win!

Our final box match was Lancs, if we won we would be in a position to play off for 3rd or 4th and if not 5th /6th. Emilia started us off against a really strong opponent, handling it well but a loss over all. Eleanor then came up with a great win at 3, followed by Emma who got another good win at 2! Eloise had the top ranked girl in the age group and competed well, eventually losing 4 – 2, 4- 2.

We were 2- 2 going in to the doubles! Doubles started on Sunday, both doubles teams on at the same time! Eleanor and Emma lost at 1 to a good pair and Emilia and Eloise pulled out an amazing win after being a set down to win it 6 – 10 in the tiebreak! 3 – 3 and in to a shoot out! Eleanor and Eloise represented the team with everyone else backing them all the way! It went to an incredible 15 – 17 in the shoot out going to Lancashire! An incredible effort from all the girls! 4 – 3 to Lancs.

We started our 5th/6th play off against East of Scotland losing at 4 and 3 but then Emma at 2 got us back in the running! Eloise had a tough match, losing in a 3rd set match tiebreak so we went in to the doubles 3 – 1 down. Anya stepped in for the first time and played with Emma at 2 doubles – after being a set down they brough it back to win a convincing 3rd set match tie break! 3 – 2 down, Eloise and Eleanor stepped on to the court and battled hard but the match went to East of Scotland 4 – 2.

The girls were incredible all weekend, we lost narrowly to 2nd place Lancs and had chances against 3rd place Middlesex! Our team was right there! A big congrats to Surrey who won it and credit to all of the children who competed fairly in a very noisy environment. A big thank you as well to the parents of our team, you were incredible – you supported unconditionally, you helped prepare them before matches, you were part of the team!

I look forward to seeing how these girls continue to improve in the next year!

LTA Results: https://www.lta.org.uk/49acb4/siteassets/compete/junior/file/draws--results---qualies--finals-as-of-21.05.2022.pdf