The Devon girls 10 and under team of Emily Syms, Lauren McGinnisand Olga Aphrodite Diavastis, in her first County match, were drawn in a tough group together with Avon and Somerset. With two teams qualifying from the group Devon started against Somerset.
Olga and Lauren were on court first and found things tough against their more experienced opponents. Both lost in straight sets with Lauren fighting hard before going down in a second set tiebreak. That left Emily needing to win to keep the match alive. She started well going into a 2/0 lead but the loss of 3 sudden death points in consecutive games meant she found herself a set down. It continued to be a very high level and close match but Emily was unable to get the win and Devon found themselves 3/0 down. In the doubles Emily joined forces with Lauren and won in straight sets to regain some pride for Devon.
Avon was always going to be a tough match and Olga and Lauren were beaten in straight sets to leave the team 2/0 down. This time Emily won the top singles match 4/0 4/0 to keep the tie alive. Emily and Olga teamed up this time but despite some great defensive play from Olga the Avon girls tactically hit a barrage of shots at her and attempted to keep Emily out of the game. The girls fought hard but were beaten in 2 close sets meaning they failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
On day 2 Devon came up against Cornwall and it was Emily who got the team off to a flying start winning the top singles match in straight sets. Olga was next up and despite being a set up and 3/2 up was unable to close the match out losing in 3 sets. Things looked bleak for Devon with Lauren a set down but she managed to turn things around winning the match in 3 sets and putting the team 2/1 up heading into the doubles. Emily and Olga had the task of winning the tie and with Emily dominating the match with her hard hitting ground strokes and big serving and Olga playing her best tennis of the weekend, the girls won in straight sets and with it the tie 3/1.
So a great finish to the weekend which saw a great team spirit amongst the girls and all the girls contributing to the team’s win on the final day against Cornwall.
