The Cambridgeshire Under 10 girls tennis team of Chaaya Malik, Sama Malik, Khumo Karas and Diketso Karas, fought through testing weather conditions to come 4th in their group at the County Cup event held at the Woodford Wells Tennis Club in Essex. The Saturday saw strong winds and overcast skies as Cambridgeshire came up against the 2 strongest teams, Essex and Suffolk. Up first was Essex. Against a high class team, the 3 singles all went comfortably to Essex, with Chaaya Malik losing 4-0, 4-0 to Annali Olivelle, Sama Malik losing 4-1,4-0 to Eleanor Baglow and Khumo Karas losing to Arabella Moen 4-1, 4-1. The doubles saw twins Chaaya and Sama go up against Ashlle Hale and Tyra-Nicole Whyte, being outplayed to lose 4-0, 4-0. So with 2 points per win, Essex won the tie 8-0.
The second match of the day was against eventual winners Suffolk. Again more tough matchups for the Cambs girls, with Chaaya Malik overpowered by Sofia Khalyaeva 4-1, 4-0, Harriet Petley beating Sama Malik 4-1, 4-1, and Diketso Karas going down 4-0, 4-1 to Kylie Bilchev. The doubles was a much closer affair, with twins Khumo and Diketso playing Sofia and Kylie, the Suffolk numbers 1 and 3. After losing the first set 4-0, Khumo and Diketso came back to push the Suffolk pair all the way in the second, having a couple of set points, but eventually losing the set and match 5-4 (7-0 in the tie-break). So Suffolk won the tie 8-0.
On Sunday and the rain came down all day, but as the club had astro-turf courts, play went on as scheduled. With the two toughest teams out of the way on the Saturday, the girls felt confident of some big wins on day two. Norfolk was the first team of the day, which saw Chaaya up against a very strong opponent in Monica Raviraj who overcame Chaaya 4-0, 4-0. In the other two singles the girls faired a lot better, with Sama beating Emily Barrett 4-0, 4-0 and Khumo beating Josephine Jarvis 4-1, 4-1. This put the team up 4-2 going into the doubles. After a very tense affair, the Norfolk team of Monica Raviraj and Josephine Jarvis came from a set down, coming through to beat Sama and Chaaya 2-4, 4-0, 10-7 in the 3rd set championship tie-break. This put the tie at 4 points all, so all was decided on a 10 point doubles tie-break shootout. The doubles teams stayed the same but unfortunately Chaaya and Sama just fell short 10-6 making the overall score 5-4 to Norfolk.
The final match of the day put Cambridgeshire up against Bedfordshire for 4th and 5th place. After the singles Cambridgeshire were 4-2 down with Diketso beating Maddie Axford 4-2, 4-0, and Chaaya and Sama losing to Alessia Milazzo and Natalya Ogunwale, 4-0 4-1 and 4-0 4-2 respectively. Then followed the doubles where Khumo and Diketso took on Alessia and Natalya. Playing some great team doubles, the Cambs pair won 4-2 4-1 taking the overall score to 4-4 and onto another deciding 10 point doubles tie-break shootout. One change to the line up saw the substitution of Alessia Milazzo for Maddie Axford on the Bedfordshire team, but they were no mach for the quick starting Khumo and Diketso, storming to victory 10-1 and sealing the tie 5-4 and 4th place overall.