Herefordshire & Worcestershire’s under nine player Patrick Niedzwiedz has excelled by finishing sixth in the finals of the Powder Byrne championships.
In-form Patrick from Bromsgrove won the Nottingham qualifier – one of 16 regional events taking place in the UK – to secure a spot in the national finals which took place in the Olympic Park Tennis and Hockey Centre in London on Sunday December 7.
The finals day began with the girls under nines and included a training session with the Team GB Davis Cup Captain Leon Smith.
It was then the turn of the boys to take centre stage. Patrick was one of 16 boys who were split into four groups of four with the round robin format determining the main draw.
In his opening match against No. 2 seed Charlie Holmes, Patrick lost the first set 7-4 and looked almost beaten in the second set, but at 4-6 down facing two match points, Patrick produced his best tennis and won the next four points closing the set 8-6.
From this moment on, Patrick never looked back and dominated the final set winning it 7-1.
The second match also started with Patrick going down in the first set 5-7 and having to fight back by winning the second set 7-5 and the third 7-3.
Knowing that he would qualify to the main draw, Patrick lost his concentration and the final round robin match 11-9, 7-4.
The quarter final provided a very strong challenge for Patrick as he faced Jethro Dela Vega who was the defending champion from the last year.
Despite beating Jethro in the previous two encounters, this time Patrick couldn’t find a way to defeat his opponent.
Jethro emerged victorious with the score line 7-3, 7-4 and went on to lift the Powder Byrne Trophy for the second successive year.
In the following consolation matches Patrick played his best tennis beating Timothy Viding, the No. 3 seed and losing to No. 1 seed Hugo Coquelin.
At the end of the event Patrick finished in a fantastic sixth place.