The 3E Security County Closed Tennis Championships were played at the Cambridge Club for the first time in a week of glorious sunshine and all 114 competitor experienced lots of matches in a really good atmosphere.
The titles were shared around the players this year with some exciting and high quality matches. Unfortunately some of the top girls did not compete which would have created a really good County spirit.
Tom Hands won the 18 and under boys singles from Cambridge Club local Dom Lea who unfortunately had to retire after losing the first set 6/2 with a shoulder injury. Dominic Lea had earlier beaten Chris Kindred in the semi -finals in perhaps the best match of the tournament
3/6, 7/6, 6/3 and played with exemplary sportsmanship. The final had promised to be another epic encounter until Dom injured his shoulder.
Tom teamed up with Chris Kindred to win the doubles too.
The girls 18 and under final was another close match with both Stella Gordon and Lauren Watson-Steele hitting furiously off the ground. Stella took the first set 6/4 but then her younger opponent managed to turn the match around and took the next two sets 6/2, 6/1. Stella paired up with Natalie Bacon to win the 18 and under doubles.
Dominic Lea beat Tom Hands in the 16 and under semi-final but then faced top seed Ben Clark in the final. Lea was clearly injured as he lost 1/6, 0/6 to the left handed Clark. Clark did however play a very good match and was a worthy winner.
Thalia Martin from Peterborough won the 16 and under final beating top seed Lauren Watson-Steele 7/5, 6/2.
All the top 14 and under boys were competing and this proved to be a very competitive age group. All 4 top seeds reached the semi-finals where top seed Maki Zivotic beat third seed Jan Ortonowski 6/3, 6/2 in one semi-final and second seed Charlie James beat fourth seed Vincent Chen 6/3, 6/3 in the other. In the final top seed Maki played very consistently to outmanoeuvre Charlie James 6/3, 6/3.
In the doubles Maki and Jan beat Charlie James and Sam Clark 7/6, 7/6 in a very entertaining match.
In the younger age groups Chen’s younger brother Derrick upset the top seed Harry Wendelken 6/4, 6/1 to win the 12 and under title.
Chaaya Malik beat her twin sister Sama to take the girl’s 12 and under title 7/6, 7/5!
The Malik twins played each other again in the girls 10 and under final with Chaaya again coming out on top 4/1, 5/4 in another tight match.
The boys 10 and under final was won by Cambridge Club’s Vincent Castillo who over whelmed Darius Fatemi-Ghomi 4/0, 4/0.
27 children played in the 9 and under event where the players play the best of 3 tie breaks to 7 points. There were numerous three set matches.
Top seed, 8 year old Yujiro Onuma won the 9 and under event beating Aidan Murphy who had a good run to get to the final 7/4, 8/6.
In the 8 and under mini red event Joshua Robson-Brown, another Cambridge Club player took the title beating Thomas Unwin in the final, while Emma Harris beat Marennah Prempeh to take the girls title.
Referee Sue Rich commented – ‘It was an excellent week of tennis and the Cambridge Club created a good atmosphere for the players and there were some very competitive matches. I hope all the top players will compete next year to make the event even better.’