The county finals of the Durham & Cleveland HSBC Road to Wimbledon 2013 were held at Sunderland Tennis Centre over the weekend of the 6th and 7th July.
We had 15 boys and 10 girls taking part who had come through their club events. The clubs represented at the finals were David Lloyd Teesside, Durham Archery, Eldon Grove, Virgin Active Wearside, New Blackwell/Wellfield, Shotley & Benfieldside, Sunderland Tennis Centre, Tennis World and Yarm. All registered clubs were invited to stage a minimum 5 player event for the age group 14 and under with the winner and runner up being invited to the county finals. Where clubs were struggling with numbers to host an event they merged with neighbouring clubs.
The qualification draws were played on Saturday. We had some great matches all played in a sportsmanlike manner which was good to see. In the girls event there were 2 round robin groups of 4 with the winners from each group going through to the semis on Sunday. The winner of Group A was Chante Malo from Tennis World with Eve Murray (Yarm) one of the younger players finishing in 2nd place. In Group B the winner Was Alice Hopper from Durham Archery who played some good consistent tennis and Beth Laybourne (Virgin Active Wearside) came in 2nd place.
The boys played in a qualifying draw on Saturday with 2 qualifiers going through to the semis on Sunday. The two qualifiers who made it through to the main draw were Karl Smyth from Sunderland Tennis Centre and Agi Cofinas from David Lloyd Teesside. Karl, who has only been playing the game for 2 years, did particularly winning 3 matches to qualify. His last match was a closely fought contest against Connor Emerson of Virgin Active Wearside with the final score being 5-4, 5-3.
Sunday again provided us with some great matches all keenly contested. In the girls semi finals Lois Page (David Lloyd Teesside) and Rebeca Richardson (Virgin Active Wearside) came through victorious against our qualifiers Chante and Alice. Lois put up a tremendous fight in the final against Rebeca, eventually succumbing 6-1, 6-3. Chante and Alice played off for 3rd and 4th place. Alice showed competitive spirit throughout however Chante came through 6-2, 6-1.
The boy’s semis and finals threw up some equally competitive matches. Andrew McBride (New Blackwell/Wellfield and Henri Morland (Tennis World) won through to the finals having beaten Karl and Agi. The final was a very close match which not surprisingly went to a 3rd set match tiebreak which Henri eventually won 10-5. In the playoff for 3rd/4th Agi came in third and Karl a respectable 4th.
Throughout the entire weekend the matches were played in a tremendous spirit so well done to all the players! Many thanks go to the coaches for staging the club events to give their players the opportunity to play in such a prestigious competition!
Finally good luck to Henri and Rebeca in the finals and fingers crossed that our runners up, Andrew and Lois also get the chance to go if selected amongst the best rated runners up!