Congratulations to the Surrey 14U Boys County Cup team for winning the Aegon County Cup Event Final!
LTA President Cathie Sabin is seen pictured with the team consisting of Team Captain, Shaun Malcolm, Team Coach Josh Miller, Players: Benjamin Heynold, Arthur Fery, Jorge Beltrao, Haring Hewing, Vraj Patel, Guy Den Ouden played over 3 days from 13 May, winning in the final against Lancashire, Hertfordshire and Kent.
Congratulations also go to the Surrey Girls for reaching the final and coming third in their group.
Team Captain Mark Holdstock gives his report on the girls' competition.
Qualifying
Surrey Under 14's girls team would start there campaign as defending champions in Malvern, playing against Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire. The team comprised of MJ Changwereza, Danielle Hack, Sally Pethybridge, Alice Klugman, Freya Hampton-Evans, Kung Phimlee and Georgina Price.
On the first day Surrey got off to a great start against Northamptonshire with Freya and Kung winning singles three and four and only dropping three games between them. The domination continued with Danielle winning 6-0, 6-1 and MJ putting the match out of reach from Northamptonshire winning 6-0,6-2. Both Sally & Freya and Alice & Kung wrapped up the match for Surrey giving them a 6-0 victory over Northamptonshire.
On day two Surrey would play Staffordshire and this time it would be Alice and Freya who would get Surrey off to a flying start, with Alice winning at number four 6-0 6-0 and Freya winning at three 6-4, 6-1. Sally would wrap up the number two singles in less than an hour winning 6-1,6-2 and, Danielle would win the match for Surrey winning 6-2,6-2. The doubles was won comfortably by Alice & Kung and MJ & Sally, both only dropping four games to give Surrey another 6-0 win.
The final would be against Warwickshire and only the winners would go through to Nationals, with Warwickshire having a very strong pair at one and two singles it would be a very close match. As in the previous day's Surrey got off to a great start with Sally winning singles number three 6-1,6-0. It was soon to be followed with a win from Kung in singles four 7-6, 6-3 in a match that took over two hours. Danielle would have a close match with Tamara Malazonia narrowly going down 3-6,3-6. In the final singles MJ would lead Lillian Mould 6-3, 5-3 and deuce when rain stopped play. It would be two hours before they returned to the court and after saving five match points Lillian would level the score at 5-all in the second set. It looked like momentum was turning and Lillian was getting hold of the match, but MJ was able to dig deep and take the next two games to win the match. It was an amazing performance from MJ considering the rain delay, the change of court surface due to the bad weather and that she was playing a player she lost to the last time they played.
Surrey would go into the two doubles needing one victory to secure a place at Nationals. In Doubles one MJ and Sally couldn't get the better of Warwickshire number one doubles pair going down 4-6,5-7. It would go to the last doubles to decide whether Surrey would be heading to the Nationals or play a shoot-out. The match couldn't be any closer with Warwickshire the stronger pair in the first set winning it 6-3. However, Alice and Kung who play school tennis together were able to use there experience and take the second set 7-4 on the tie-break. A championship tie-break would decide the match, with Surrey starting well and taking a 5-3 lead. However, Warwickshire made a good return and then two un-returnable serves to lead 6-5. The match would go to the wire with Warwickshire winning 10-8 and forcing a shoot out.
Shoot-out rules state you have to use one player from each doubles pairing, this putting Surrey as the underdogs going into the final match. Warwickshire would have their one and two playing together while Surrey would have their one and five together, whose combine ranking was a lot lower than Warwickshire. However, Alice and MJ would go out and play a flawless shoot out tiebreak, with MJ hitting blistering returns and Alice hitting piercing interceptions they picked up the match comfortably 10-4.
Nationals
Surrey headed to Nottingham with Danielle Hack, Sally Pethybridge, Freya Hampton-Evans, Alice Klugman, Kung Phimlee and Georgia Price to play Wiltshire on the first day. Alice and Freya got Surrey off to the perfect start with straights sets wins over Wiltshire giving Surrey 2-0 lead. Sally would play Jessica Doerr in the number two singles and after an hour a half gave Surrey a 3-0 lead. In the last singles in a match that would last two hours Danielle would be Harriet Eyles to win the match 4-0 for Surrey. Surrey would split the doubles with Wiltshire finishing the match Surrey 5-1 Wiltshire. Surrey would next play Yorkshire and Sally and Alice would be first out to play. Alice started well by winning the first set and Sally would come from 5-0 down back to 5-4 but narrowing losing the first set 6-4. In the end Yorkshire would manage to win both matches in three long sets. Kung got Surrey back in the match by beating Abigail Wild 6-1, 6-3. In the final Singles Danielle would play Amber Woffindin. It was a close match but Amber won 6-4, 6-3. Surrey would play the doubles the next morning needing both wins. Danielle and Freya got Surrey off to the perfect start with a 6-1 6-1 win over their number one pair. Kung and Alice battled hard to force a play off but narrowly lost to Dawson and Palma 6-3, 6-4 winning the match for Yorkshire 4-2. Surrey would need to win 5-1 against Notts to qualify for the final. Georgia and Kung would play first and Georgia fought from 4-0 down to take the lead 5-4 in the first set, but Moira Johnson was able to save three set points and win the first set. Moira would go on to take the second set 6-4. Kung on the next court was fighting hard against Rajecki but couldn't get into the lead and finally Rajecki won the match 6-3 6-4. Freya got Surrey back into the match with an impressive win over Millie Mathews 6-1, 6-4. In the final singles Danielle would play Anna Buckley and started well winning he first set 6-4. However, playing her fourth long match in two days was taken its toll and Anna came back to win in three sets. Alice and Kung brought the match to 3-2 to Notts after a comfortable win in the doubles 6-1, 6-1 . In the final doubles to force a play-off Freya and Sally would need to beat the number one pair. Sally and Freya had chances but couldn't quite get into a lead in the match, with Buckley and Rajecki winning 6-4, 6-1. Winning the match 4-2 for Notts and putting them into the final.
On the final day Surrey would play Kent and Georgia and Freya got the team off to a great start with 6-3, 6-1 & 6-1, 6-1 wins respectively. Sally would have an epic match against Charlotte Imbert winning 10-7 in the championship tie-break. In the final singles Danielle would play Susannah Skarlosh. Danielle played some brilliant tennis considering how many matches she played over the weekend, and wrapped up the singles and match 6-4, 6-0, with Surrey beating Kent 4-0 and securing 5th place.
Special mention needs to go to Danielle Hack for the amount of tennis she played at County Cup and always being there for the team.
For full match details please CLICK HERE!!