The tournament was held from Sunday 25th May to Saturday 31st May over the Whitsun half-term.
This regional level grade 3 event attracted entries from across the country from Yorkshire in the North to the coastal area of Dorset in the South. 228 players mostly of county standard with a smattering at national level played in age grouped draws from mini red tennis for under 8’s to the high powered under 18’s.
Suffolk was well represented with Zvonko Bencedic returning from a Grade 1 National competition making finals in the U12’s Boys singles just losing out to Dorset’s Sam Bossem in two tight sets, 6-4, 7-6(3). Harriet Petley took the U12 girls title benefiting from the withdrawal of top seed Ashlie Hale. Harriet started the final in devastating fashion taking the first set off Abigail Michelow (Essex) for the loss of just one game. Abigail battled back to lead 5-0 in the second set before Harriet staged a fight back which just failed losing the set
6-4. In a close match tie-break the Suffolk player eventually prevailed 10-6. Ben Jones (currently ranked 15 in the country) took the U16 title in an entertaining match with Jared Bones also from Suffolk, 6-2, 6-3.
Top seeds Erica Izzat (U16) and Maria Andrews (U18) from Essex and Norfolk respectively showed their class. Erica lost just 6 games to take the title but this was trumped by Maria who only just failed to achieve a complete shut out losing 1 game.
Edward Pudney (Essex) defeated a much improved Finlay Rowan (Norfolk) in the U14 Boys singles. In another Norfolk/Essex final Vianne Palffy gained revenge beating her Essex opponent, Zuzanna Glowacz.
Returning from an ankle injury, top seed in the U18 Boys, Toby Cutting (Suffolk), found that his game was not quite match tight losing in his first match to Thomas Watkinson in a tight three sets 1-4, 5-4(4), 1-0 (9). The title being taken by the third seed Lucas Perry from Kent.
In the younger age groups Under 8 (mini red), Under 9 (Mini Orange) and Under 10 (Mini Green) a very promising performance saw Holbrook’s Saul Hindmarch take the Mini Red title. In the Orange event, played in the best weather of the week, a record 172 matches were played, including a full consolation draw of 16 players in the Boys event. Kent’s Oliver Evans taking the title with Grace Tucson (Sussex) victorious in the Girls. In a high class under 10 draw Thomas Drayton (Middlesex) lost only 2 games displaying real consistency. Thomas continued this into the U12 singles where he won a further two matches before losing to Zvonko Bencedic – the top seed. Thomas could be one to watch for the future and it will be interesting to see how he adapts as he moves from Mini tennis into the junior ranks. Kayleigh Hale (Essex) took the U10 girls at the same time achieving her green 1 star rating. Suffolk’s Justice Hall who is young enough to play Mini Orange came very close to upsetting Caitlin McLoughlin (Kent) – a top rated green player – losing in a set tie-break 7-4. Justice qualified from her round robin to make semi-final of the main draw losing to Kayleigh Hale. In the 3rd/4th place play off Justice defeated Jessica Wood (Cambridgeshire) to take 3rd place.
In a sparse doubles draw two performances stand out – Phoebe Collins and Katie McGarrigle (Essex) took both the U16 & U18 titles, Regan Bessey and Frederick Withers (Norfolk) took the U12 Boys title surprising the more highly rated Suffolk pair of Zvonko Bencedic and Travis Ireland.
Paul Sheldrake
ISC Tennis Chairman