It was a glorious summer morning when the Buckinghamshire Team of Hannah Russell (Halton) and Oli Levi (GX LTC Academy) arrived at the prestigious Stoke Park Club, venue for the Boodles Challenge. Both Hannah and Oliver had won their chance to represent Bucks in this event at an invitation tournament at Bucks Indoor Tennis Centre earlier in the month. Competition had been fierce, with the best boys and girls in the County competing against each other.
This was the first time that there had been a junior event at the Boodles challenge, and the matches against the best from Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire U12’s competed for the title of Boodles Champion 2009. The matches took place on the beautiful grass courts next to the grand stadium, which later staged exhibition matches from some of the worlds greatest players, such as Gilles Simon, Nikolay Davydenko, Jamie Murray and the Bryan Brothers.
The girl’s tournament was a match between Hannah and Berkshires Chloe Lant. They played a magnificent game of tennis, fiercely competitive, but with Chloe having the edge to beat Hannah for the championship title. Hannah beat Olivia Pickford from Oxfordshire without dropping a game, which meant she won the silver medal.
Oliver had a fairly straight forward run beating both Nathan Shaw from Berkshire and Anand Bandiani from Oxfordshire without losing a single game to win the title. Both matches were exciting with some excellent tennis played by all.
The players were then able to meet Nikolay Davydenko and medals were presented by Abbie Lench, Bucks Tennis Development Manager.