_0_175x-.JPG)
Raffaella Mora from St Peter’s High School Gloucester won the Oxstalls Junior Open Under 12’s Tennis tournament on her home courts at Oxstalls tennis centre in Gloucester over the weekend. The unseeded Oxstalls Tennis Academy player battled against players from across the country, beating the number one and four seeds to clinch the title. Ella as she is known also came runner up in the girl’s doubles competition with her partner and singles runner up Brodie Walker (Bristol).
The boys Under 10’s final saw James Holden beat his training partner Sam Neale in a third set tie break to take the title. Both players train at Oxstalls Tennis Centre so used their home advantage to become winner and runner up from the 16 boys who entered and competed on the Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the girls Under 10’s singles Maria Budin (Bristol), a nationally talent ID player by the LTA took the title from Hannah Davies, winning in two sets.
The Under 18’s girls singles title was taken by Sophie Brazell (Cheltenham) with an empathtic 6.0 6.0 victory over number two seed Lottie Vaughan. The boys Under 18’s singles was won by Alexander Allen, beating Ben Langley. Matthew Morrow and Christopher Cole (Gloucestershire) won the boys under 18’s doubles title. Chris also had an excellent run in the singles event, eventually losing to the winner. There was other local success with Christopher Cole (St Peters) taking the Boys Under 16’s title Jake Fisher (Lancashire) who’s grandparents live in Gloucester won the Boys Under 12’s singles.
The under 14’s event saw Charlie Song (seeded 4) (Birmingham) beat number one seed Joel Jones (Cornwell) in the third set. The girl’s event was won by Meryl Bird beating Gloucestershire’s Judith Richards in two sets. The boys Under 14’s doubles was won by Gloucestershire pairing Samuel Tullett and Rhodri Hande.
The Under 8’s and 9’s events were held on the Wednesday afternoon with 15 mini red (U8) players and 29 mini orange (U9) players competing in round robin boxes, with the winners progressing to play off for the title. The following took the the titles: Under 8’s: Girls - Charlotte Gardner (Bristol) Boys – Oliver Auty (Bristol) Under 9’s: Girls – Olivia Hamilton (Somerset) Boys – Tom Batchelor (Bristol).
The event which ran for six days with children from all over the country was held at Oxstalls tennis centre for the second year. Darren Morris tournament manager for centre, managed by Aspire Sports & Cultural Trust said, ‘The tournament is just like Wimbledon but indoors. The players compete in an elimination draw and to have two of our players from the Academy win their age groups is a fantastic achievement.’
The 2nd Oxstalls Junior Open sponsored by Endsleigh Sports Insurance had over 250 children competing in 19 events, singles and doubles from the under 8’s through to under 18’s. Darren continued ‘The event ran very smoothly and has been a great success with over 370 matches played indoors and outdoors. We have had players from as north as Lancashire & Scarborough and down to Cornwell and Wales, with lots of local players competing too.’