Junior Real Tennis

2020/21 By Paul Weaver JUNIOR TENNIS

Still only 9 years old Max was determined to retain his title and pulled away after sharing the first 6 games to take the title 6/3

U12s finalists & semi-finalists

As with all other sections of Real Tennis, all over the world the Junior season here was badly affected by court closures. However, in the end we managed to complete most of our national competitions.

The U12 and the U14 events were held at Radley at the end of October. In the final of the U12s Laszlo Garson came up against last years’ winner Max Warner. Still only 9 years old Max was determined to retain his title and pulled away after sharing the first 6 games to take the title 6/3. There were many fine performances in the U14 section but the big story was Henry Weekes (RTC) making it through from the first group all the way to the final. There he finally met his match and lost to Henry Henman (Radley) 6/1 6/0. Also at the end of October, the U16/U18 events got under way at Wellington. The final of the U16s was an all Seacourt affair with Max Trueman proving to be far too strong for James Medlow, Max winning fairly comfortably in the end 6/1 6/2 to take the title back to Seacourt as many have done before! In the U18 section Seacourt once again dominated with Max Trueman reaching the final to play last years’ winner William Flynn. The standard of play just got better and better. There was a great performance by Max Trueman who is two years younger than Will but it was the number 1 seed William Flynn (Seacourt) who prevailed after a tough match winning 6/4 6/2. Wellington whose help enabled this event to happen under the most difficult of conditions. Thanks of course also to the T&RA who sponsored the event and to The Dedanists’ Foundation for providing tournament shirts.

U18 National Handicap Singles, Finalists & semi-finalists

The U18 National Handicap Singles tournament 2020 was finally completed in June 2021. The “B” grade event was won by Tanish Mehta (Wellington) who defeated Poppy Hinds (Wellington) 6/3 to take the title. The “A” grade event was won by Cesca Sweet who defeated her twin brother junior tournament, the Peter Luck-Hille Cup attracted a record entry of ten clubs playing in a knockout format for the first time. Youngsters from Seacourt, Prested, Petworth, Oratory, Wellington, RTC, Queen’s, Radley, Oxford and Bristol took part. In a very close final Seacourt defeated RTC 2/1 to lift the magnificent trophy. The World Junior Championships which were due to be held in Tuxedo NY in July 2020 have now been rescheduled to July 2022 when it is hoped that international travel will be back to something like normal and the strong British contingent can take part. Finally our thanks go out once again to the main sponsors of the junior tournaments, the T&RA and the Dedanists’ Foundation for their continued generosity.

As well as these traditional junior events, the schools Tennis programme continues to flourish under the guidance of Mick Dean. There are now a large number of schools getting involved in the inter-schools’ championships which took place very successfully early in 2020 in several locations.

U14 finalists, Henry & Henry

Willem Sweet 8/2 in the final! Cesca becoming the first girl to win this title in it’s 25 year history. Many thanks go out to Wellington for holding the events in these most difficult of circumstances and to The Dedanists’ Foundation for their continued support and sponsorship.