Grantees Crowned National Champions
The Lexus Junior National Championships were held at the Nottingham Tennis Centre last week and saw many of our grantees in action. It’s a week where the young players get to test themselves against the best in the country and pick up lots of learnings for the final part of the 2024 season.
Cameron Rae reached the final of the U11 singles event losing out to Max Hodkinson 6-3, 6-2 after a very solid week of tennis which saw him not drop more than 2 games in a set en route to the final. Tomas Gabor reached the semi-finals pushing the eventual winner to three sets in a close encounter. Matyas Oprchal reached the other semi-final and the final 4 all went on play it out in the doubles final. Cameron partnering Max claimed the title over Tomas and Matyas in straight sets.
It was a clash of the grantees in the U11 girls singles final with Sahara Baptiste coming out on top against Honey Robinson 6-3, 6-3. Coco Witton reached the semi-finals pushing Sahara to a tight third set. Coco then went on to claim the doubles titles with Evie Pritchard in a match which went to a championship tie-break against Honey and Emma Fu.
Oskar Laskowski claimed the U12 singles title. Oskar had some very convincing wins, winning 4 sets without even dropping a game. In the semi-finals grantee Joseph Knightley pushed Oskar to a third set 7-5. Joseph then teamed up with Frederick Fabricius to win the boys doubles title. They won against Oskar and Pekko Pfundstein 6-0, 6-0.
Naina Kapoor had a very good week in the girls U12s event reaching the final and eventually losing out 6-4 6-3 to Marlena Koberska-Wasiak. April Sackflame and Isabella Rebel reached the semi-finals, both demonstrating very strong tennis performances. April then teamed up with Sophia Florence to reach the doubles final where they lost out to grantees Sophia Cuninghame and Naina in straight sets 6-3. 6-1.
It was a busy time for the grantees in the U14 event as Scott Watson won the boys title with a three set final clash again Eric Lorimer. The match went the distance 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4. A tenacious win from Scott to claim the title.
There was even more success on the doubles court when Eric and Scott teamed up and went all the way to a championship tie-break to win 7-6 (3) 1-6, 10-4 against Kevin Huang and Ruben Stanmore. What a brilliant way to end the weekend.
Megan Knight and Daniella Britton went head to head in the U14 final. Megan Knight won 6-3, 6-4 in a fantastically contested battle. They then teamed up to lift the trophy in the doubles without dropping a set. They beat Milica Sakamoto Milojevic and Anna wright in the final.
Well done to all our grantees who did Tennis First proud with exceptional effort and very strong performances.