Boys 10U finished 2nd County Cup Qualifying
Date: 30th and 31st May
The Weald lawn Tennis Club, Hassocks
Kent Team:
Matthew Pickering
Oliver Evans
Hugo Coquelin
Alexis Chastang
Rory Marles
Day One
First match: Kent vs Dorset 3-2
Hugo Coquelin kicked off proceedings as number 3 against Dorset. Hugo played his consistent tennis and won convincingly 4-0 4-2 to give Kent a 1-0 lead. Oliver Evans played as our number 2 and played a touch match against Louis Cunningham. Five games went to deuce but Oliver was not able to win any and ended up losing the match and draw the tie at 1-1. Mathew Pickering played as our number 1 and unfortunately lost his match. Needing to win the doubles rubber to take us into a match tiebreak shootout I was confident that Matthew and Oliver could do it. They won their match 4-2 5-3 playing very good attacking doubles. This made the score 2-2 and boys played a shootout tiebreak straight after and won it 10-2. They played outstanding and we ended up winning 3-2 overall.
Second match: Kent vs Buckingamshire 4-0
Being more relaxed after the first match all 3 boys played very well in their singles matches and gave us a 3-0 lead. I decided to give Alexis and Rory (our 4th and 5th players) a chance to play in doubles as they trained well throughout the week prior to competition. They fought very well and won the match in 2 tiebreaks 5-4 5-4. We won 4-0.
As Sundays' weather did not look great, referee made a decision to play the semis the same day.
Semi Final Kent vs Surrey 3-0
Matthew, Oliver and Hugo were very excited to play in the semi finals and they showed that on the court with great fighting spirit to win their singles matches in straight sets. That gave us the victory and a chance in the final. Doubles was not played.
Day 2
Final - Humpshire & IOW vs Kent 3-1
This was already a great achievement in reaching the finals. Boys were nervous going into the match so we tried to stick to the same routine in the warm up. Matthew and Oliver played at the same time. Matthew played against one of the best players in the country Daniel Pricket and lost 4-1 4-0. Oliver had a really tough first set against Aaron Dawson and won it in the tiebreak 8-6. That was a big moment of the match and Oliver grew more in confidence and won the second set and the match. Tie was 1-1. Hugo who won all his matches the previous day then went on to play against Louie Bowden. Even though Hugo beat him in their last meeting Louie was too strong this time and won the match 4-1 4-0. We then needed to win the doubles to take the game to the shootout. Matthew and Oliver unfortunately could not take their momentum from the previous day and due to nervous did not played their best and ended losing 4-0 4-0. The overall score finished 3-1.
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. Coming second has been the best result for 10U Kent team in the recent years.
Davor Baretic
10U Boys County Cup Captain