Papworth teenager Zoe Douglas has won her chance to play at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Wimbledon) after winning the County “Road to Wimbledon” play off finals on Sunday 10th July 2011 at the Esporta centre in Peterborough.
The “Road to Wimbledon” is a Lawn Tennis Association (L.T.A) National Tennis event for junior players whereby they play other players from within their county to win the chance to play at Wimbledon later in the summer. For Cambridgeshire, winners from various club heats moved on to play in their county “Road to Wimbledon” county finals (held at Esporta) and the winners of the county finals then go on to play at Wimbledon against the other best players from across the country. The runners up may also get the chance to play at Wimbledon depending on their rating and ranking.
On a beautiful sunny Sunday, Angelica Fachechi (picture-left) won through her semi final with a positive win against a battling Hannah Crier 6-4, 6-0 with hard hitting and big serving. In the other semi-final, Zoe Douglas (picture-right) played against Rachel Senior who had earlier won a hard fought battle against Fainan Shareef by 2 points in a 3rd set match tie break, the winning score being 7-5, 3-6, 10-8(mtb). For this other semi-final, Zoe Douglas secured a well earned victory 6-0, 6-0 before moving on to play Angelica in the play-off final. In the final, both players battled hard with some excellent rallies and solid ground strokes and equally strong serving but even with Angelica playing some great tennis, Zoe ultimately proved too strong with high quality shots and consistent play winning the match 6-0, 6-1 to book her place in the Wimbledon National Finals.
“ It’s great to get the chance to play there” said Zoe, “all of the hard work in training and playing tournaments across the country has paid off and I’m really looking forward to going to Wimbledon and playing some of the best players from across the country”.
Well done to all players for reaching the county “Road to Wimbledon” finals and congratulations to Zoe Douglas, we wish her well in the upcoming National Wimbledon Finals.