Local players Sama Malik, Yujiro Onuma, Ethan Lee all took pride of place at the Cambridge LTC Easter Tournament last week. The tournament which is a grade 3 event attracted 250 players from all around the country during the week playing events from 8 and under through to a Men’s Open event.
Sama Malik who plays at the Club won both the girls 14 and under singles title and also the girls 16 and under singles event. In the girls 14 and under event Sama beat local County colleague Megan Carmichael
6/3, 6/2. Megan had earlier knocked out the top seed Emily Barrett from Norfolk to reach the final.
In the 16 and under event Sama beat top seed Emil Honor 10-8 in the third set match tie break in the semi- finals and then beat the unseeded
Anya Kotecha from Herts 6/2, 6/2 in the final.
Sama with her sister Chaaya also reached the final of the 18 and under girls doubles.
The Cambridgeshire boys did very well in their respective age groups.
In the men’s open event Dom Lea reached the final before succumbing to Jake Penny the top seed 4/6, 1/6.
In the 18 and under event Dom beat Rory Blackman from Kent 6/1, 7/5 in the final to clinch that title.
In the boys 14 and under event sixth seed Ethan Lee from Peterborough had an extremely good week. He beat fourth seed Freddie Withers in the quarter finals 6/3, 6/1 and then in the semi finals beat seventh seed James Murphy 6/3, 6/0 and then beat third seed Ben Stanford 6/3, 6/3 in the final. The vastly improved Ethan looks set to represent the County in the forthcoming 14 and under County Cup team.
In the boys 12 and under event Yujiro Onuma lived up to his top billing status by winning the event by only dropping 9 games in a total of four matches. Rohan Ivengar, another local player did very well to reach the final beating Sam Constatinou from Essex 7/5, 5/7 and 10-7 in the semi finals in one of the best matches of the week but was no match for Yujiro in the final.
Other local players to do well were 9 year old Marennah Prempeh who reached the final of the girls 10 and under event. Ganesh Mullaparthi reached the semi-finals of the boys 10 and under event. Leo Runicman was runner up in the mixed 8 and under event.
Charlotte Laing with Elita Silins won the girls 14 doubles. Alex Wardley with Ed Pomeroy won the 18 doubles.
Referee Sue Rich quoted ‘Overall it was an excellent week of tennis and such a glorious sight to see all 13 courts in action at the Cambridge Club with so many local players playing well and winning so many events’.
