31st May and 1st June - Bromley Tennis Club
Kent Team:
Joshua Ward
Tommy Harrison
Maksim Balas
Vikas Kokkiligadda
Day 1
First match: Kent vs Buckinghamshire 3-1
Maksim Balas kicked off proceedings as number 3 against Buckinghamshire winning 4-1 4-0. Maksim played very well using a lot of variety in his game to frustrate his opponent and won convincingly to give Kent a 1-0 lead. Joshua Ward and Tommy Harrison played as number 1 and number 2 respectively and went on at the same time. Josh had some very tough games early in the first set but unfortunately could not take them and lost the match in two sets which drew the tie at 1 all. Tommy on the other hand after losing the first set managed to turn the match around and win in a match tie break to give us a lead 2-1. In the doubles I decided to play Maksim and Vikas who have practiced well in the weeks prior to the competition and I wanted to use all our players on the team. After a close fought first set the boys went down 5-3 4-1 which took us to a shootout to decide the rubber. Josh and Tommy had a great start and eventually won 10-2 to give us an overall victory.
Second match: Kent vs Dorset 1-3
Going into the match we knew we had a tough match in front of us as Dorset had a strong team. Tommy Harrison, our number 2 player started first and fought tremendously to win 10-4 in a match tie-break to give us a lead 1-0 There were some great points played throughout the match and Tommy stepped it up with his forehand to take control of the points . Our number 3 Maksim Balas went on next. Maksim started a bit slower, not going for his shots and lost the first set 4-2. Second set was a lot better with Maksim being more aggressive and coming to the net and wining the set 4-1. First 4 points in the match tiebreak were very close but Maksim was unfortunate to lose them and founded hard to come back eventually losing the tiebreak 10-3. This brought the tie to 1-1. Our number 1 Josh was next on the court. This match was of a great quality with hard hitting from baseline and good attacking play from both players. Josh went on to lose the match 4-2 4-1 which was a lot closer than the score suggests.
Our number 1 doubles team of Josh and Tommy went on to try and send us to another shootout but fell short and lost 5-3 4-1 which meant that we lost overall 3-1. I thought boys played very well throughout the day and I was confident going into the semi-final.
Day 2
Semi-final: Kent vs Surrey 1-3
Josh went on first and played against a very good player Rafaello Papajcik and lost 4-2 4-1. Tommy was playing at the same time against Mukhtar Andu who was also a strong player. The match started with great quality points and Tommy went into a lead 4-3 in the first set. Each point was long with tough rallies and Tommy unfortunately lost in the tie-break 7-4. Tommy kept fighting in the second but the opponent was too good on the day and won the second 4-2 to give Surrey a lead of 2-0. Maksim was next on and I was confident going into this match as he has been playing very well. His opponent, Finn Doyle however had other plans and with big hitting on both forehand and backhand made it very hard for Maksim to get into a match. Maksim went down 4-1 4-1 which gave Surrey a win 3-0. In the dead rubber doubles, Maksim and Vikas showed true fighting spirit and won the doubles 5-4 5-4 to win the final match and make the final result 3-1.
Third place play off: Kent vs Sussex 4-0
Surprising to me our boys showed great commitment to shrug off their loss in the semi-final and were very keen to finish with a win and finish third. All 3 boys won their singles matches which gave us an unassailable lead 3-0. I was very glad to see Josh win his first singles match of the weekend and he showed great courage to step up and play as he wanted to prove himself in front of his team mates. Tommy and Maksim used their strength to win in straight sets. For the doubles I decided to play Josh and Vikas, which gave Vikas our player 4 another match for the weekend. The boys won the match and gave us 4-0 victory.
I would like to say a big thank you to all the parents and most importantly the players. It was my pleasure to work with them and I was pleased to see them try their hardest every match. All the players have a great future in front of them and I wish them all the best.
Davor Baretic
10U Boys County Cup Captain