Junior Singles Championships sponsored by 
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 12’s 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 14’s 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 16’s 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 18’s 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.
For full results click here
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The European Open 2007
The European Open was again kindly hosted by the MCC and for the second consecutive year supported by Hiscox. The cut for the Tournament was handicap 2, some 3 points better than last year’s entry. Not surprisingly some exceptional Tennis was anticipated, helped by the fact that 4 of the top 6 leading players in the world were competing. On the opening days play we were treated to potentially 4 very close matches. Dave Woodman saw off Ben Ronaldson in 3 tight sets and then Andrew Fowler over from New York defeated Danny Jones in a gruelling 4 sets. Andrew played some extremely good Tennis but credit to Danny who was making his first return to the circuit after an absence of nearly 2 years. Another player making a comeback after a year out following knee surgery was Andy Lyons, Andy clearly having lost none of his skill and humour beat Mark Hobbs in 3 sets. The Final match of the first day saw the intriguing contest between Rod McNaughtan and Bryn Sayers. Last year Bryn beat Rod in this competition however the tables were turned with Rod running out the winner in 4 great sets.
The second day’s play was still round one and all 4 seeds were in action. Ruaraidh Gunn was first on against Marc Seigneur, Marc started well but Ruaraidh soon found his form and won in 3 sets. Next on was Nick Wood against Jon Dawes. Jon came out the blocks early and took the first set 6/2; it was close until midway through the second set when Jon tired a little and Nick imposed his superiority winning the next 3 sets. The third match saw the exciting young talent from the USA Camden Riviere take on the up and coming Ben Matthews. Camden appeared in a relaxed mood and Ben seized on the opportunity. Ben played some fantastic Tennis and at 2 sets all, an upset appeared on the cards. Camden however held his nerve and won the fifth set 6/2. The final match of the day saw the World Champion Rob Fahey take to the court, unlike Riviere he showed no such mood and disposed of the talented and somewhat unfortunate Ricardo Smith having just played him in the French.
Day 3 was Quarter Finals day and the dedans were looking for an upset. The day produced some truly wonderful Tennis and even though a lot of the sets were extremely close, all 4 seeds advanced to the Semi-Final stage without dropping a set.
The first Semi-Final between Ruaraidh Gunn seeded 2 and Nick Wood Seeded 4 was for the many watching, match of the tournament. The brilliance of both players was truly breathtaking with many of the rests magical to watch. From early on it looked like that it would go to the wire and the spectators were not to be denied. In the Final set Nick fought back from 5/3 down to level the match at 5/5 games all with a 30 love lead, but Ruaraidh held his nerve and ran out the winner. The second Semi-Final was Rob against Camden, brilliant experience against brilliant youth and the older player was soon to show why he is quite clearly the best player in the world. Rob was clearly in no mood to give Camden a sniff of anything and raced into a 2 set and 4 love lead before Camden showed some of the wonderful potential he clearly has, unfortunately this time round too little too late, Rob winning in just under 75 minutes.
The Final therefore was to be contested by the top 2 seeds, with Rob’s dominance of world Tennis and Ruaraidh’s epic Semi against Nick it was tribute to Ruaraidh’s incredible stamina that he took the first set 6/5. It was close until midway in the second set when Rob took control and understandly Ruaraidh started to feel the side effects of the previous match, Rob winning in 4 sets, thus retaining his title for a 3rd consecutive year. Congratulations must go to all the entrants for the excellent sporting manner the competition was played in, Mark Ryan and Chris Swallow for truly world class marking. Special thanks are due to the MCC for allowing us to hold the competition, to Hannah Ray and her team for all their hard work and of course to Viscount Charles Dupplin and Hiscox for their continued support of the event which was concluded with a magnificent dinner in the Long Room..
Report by Adam J M Phillips 1/10/07
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