Although the numbers in the 3ESecurity Cambridgeshire County Closed Tournament were down on previous years, the encouraging news was the younger age groups provided some exciting matches and entries were up.
The quality of the matches in the older age groups were quite high as several of the top players supported the event.
In the 18 and under boys event top seed Will Huyton from Stamford beat team mate and practice partner Jimmy Morris from the Cambridge Club 6/4, 6/1. The first set was a tight affair but then Will ran away with the second set. The boys paired up together and narrowly won the 18 and under doubles after saving match points against the younger pairing of Chad Richard and Josh Wilson 6/4, 4/6 and then 13 -11 in the match tie break! This tie break ebbed and flowed and the older pairing in the end were lucky to come through.
Chad Richard had a good tournament winning the boys 16 and under event beating the un-seeded Chris Kindred of Fulbourn. Chris had earlier beaten top seed Josh Wilson in the semi- finals and beaten Chad in the 18 and under event! This time Chad was on his ‘A’ game and played a good match to win 6/3, 6/0.
Josh Wilson won the boys 14 and under event beating Tom Hands of Fulbourn 7/5, 6/1. Josh was firing on all cylinders in this match.
Tom Hands had the consolation of winning the 14 and under doubles with Cambridge’s Ben Clark beating the younger pairing of Lui Murton and Alex Wardley without losing a game.
In the boys 12 and under singles Jan Ortonowski was slightly too powerful for Alex Wardley winning 7/5, 6/4.
The 10 and under boys final saw Charlie Taylor beat the vastly improving 9 year old Harry Wendelken and on the day was too powerful.
Harry however won the 9 and under orange ball tournament beating James Murphy in an exciting final 7/4, 5/7, 7/5 where both players gave it their all.
Nik Ahyaee won the boys 8 and under event but not before he was pushed all the way in the semi-final against Yujiro Onuma in one of the best matches of the day 15/13, 10/2. In the other sem-final Alexander Boyd-Bench had a great match against the more experienced Zac Cox winning 9/11, 10/6, 10/6. Nik proved too strong for Alexander in the final winning 10/5, 10/7.
In the girls events Alice McGee won the 18 and under singles beating Stella Gordon in the final 6/3, 6/4. Stella had earlier knocked out second seed Eilish Mackie 6/1, 6/4 in the semi-final.
Eilish Mackie played well to win the girls 16 and under event 6/2, 6/4 against the improving Alice Taylor.
Alice paired up with Zoe Douglas to take the 18 and under girls doubles final beating Stella Gordon and Eilish Mackie 6/2, 6/3.
The younger age groups were dominated by Peterborough’s Lizzie Pam who won both the 12 and under and 14 and under girls singles titles.
In the 14 and under event Lizzie beat Anna Loughlan 6/1, 6/3. The added power of Lizzie was the key factor here.
The two girls played each other in the final of the 12 and under event as well and Lizzie came out on top again 6/2, 6/1. This ended a very good summer for Lizzie and added to the 12 and under title she won at the Donarbon Tournament.
In the girls 10 and under event Aisha Brown dominated and in fact played in with the boys reaching the semi- finals (you can play mixed events at 10 and under) narrowly losing to eventual winner Charlie Taylor.
The girls 9 and under orange event was won by Sama Malik who beat Diketso Karas 7/0, 1/7, 7/2. Sama had earlier had to play her twin sister, Chaaya in the semi-finals!
The girls 8 and under event was won by Molly Sutherland with Charlotte Laing runner up.
The final match of the week was the 18 and under mixed doubles which Will Huyton and Katie Goodman won beating Chad Richard and Alice Taylor 6/4, 6/1.
At the presentation the John Rodger Sportsmanship Award was presented to Jimmy Morris a great stalwart of Cambridgeshire Junior Tennis.
Referee Sue Rich added ‘Overall there were some great matches from those who took part but our aim for next year must be to get more of the Club players participating.’ Well done to everyone who took part.
Please click here to view photos from the event