The team were excited ahead of our opening Aegon Team Tennis Premier 14&U season. On a very windy, yet sunny Sunday morning the 14&U Tennis Buddies girls’ team of Jessica Jackson, Dana Kenneally-Forrester, Rose Thomas and Nicole Hagan arrived for their match at local rivals Boston Tennis Club in time for a practice and to get used to the tricky outdoor conditions.
The team were very pleased that Nicole Hagan was able to play as she had done a 60 mile walk around Norfolk that weekend!
Play commenced at 10am with Jessica Jackson of Tennis Buddies against Boston’s Victoria Beardsley. As is often the case, the match was closer than the score suggests, with many of the games going to deuce but Jessica’s experience got her a great 6-0, 6-0 win. Dana Kenneally-Forrester played Lucy Hull next and being the older and more experienced player also managed another fantastic 6-0, 6-0 win.
Nicole Hagan and Rose Thomas – representing Tennis Buddies for the first time in the Premier tier - played doubles together for the first time. They played Boston’s Sophie Walsh and Charlotte Priestley at number 2 doubles eventually coming through with a fabulous 7-5, 6-2 win.
After such a great start we found ourselves 3-0 up going in to the 2nd round of matches although we knew the match was far from over. Playing at number 3 singles, Rose Thomas lost to Sophie Walsh 3-6, 1-6 and Nicole Hagan at 4th singles n also lost 3-6 0-6 to Charlotte Priestley.
Now the score was suddenly 3-2 to Tennis Buddies and all to play for in the final doubles rubber. A win for Boston would force a match tie-break shootout whereas a win for Tennis Buddies would get us over the line. In a very exciting match, Jessica and Dana managed to draw on their experience and win a very entertaining match 7-5, 6-4.
There we have it – an opening day thriller with Tennis Buddies coming out on top against Boston Tennis Club 8-4 in an afternoon that showed off all that Team Tennis has to offer. It was an interesting afternoon with the windy outdoor tennis enjoyed by all and Boston Tennis Club were the perfect hosts. All eyes are now firmly fixed on our next match away to Tipton Sports Academy in Staffordshire on Saturday 11 May.
View the rubber results from the match
Result: Tennis Buddies def. Boston Tennis Club 8-4