U18 Boys County Cup Div 2 Bromley Tennis Centre 27th Feb – 1st March 2015
Surrey Team
- Nick Nugent
- Sacha Modica
- Luke Stevenson
- Ben Draper
- Alistair Gray
- Damian Rodriguez
- Lamar Bartley
- Lawrence Perrin
- Andrew Faull
10. Max Battista
Day 1 vs Kent
Playing the ‘home town’ favourites first up was a challenging opening to this years’ event but our boys were well matched and we new it would be a good match.
Lamar Bartley kicked things off against Jonah Smith at no.6 and put in a solid performance winning 7-6, 6-3 in a hard fought match lasting over 2hrs.
Alistair Gray started very well against the tough no.5 Thomas Wright from Kent. This match was in the balance until Alistair split his little finger wide open whilst sliding for a shot; unfortunately despite trying his hardest to fight on it was a losing battle and he lost 4-6,1-6. We then had to change our doubles line up to reflect the fact that Alistair’s weekend was inevitably over.
In at no.3 came Ben Draper fresh from his ITF win in Norway and he did not disappoint with an utterly professional and focused performance in beating Matthew Summers 6-4,6-3.
Luke Stevenson came out at no.4 and gave Surrey a 3-1 overall lead with a good win against Alex Juniper 6-4,6-4; a strong match from a Surrey player who always gives his all.
At no.2 singles Surrey had Sacha Modica playing against his training partner Isaac Stoute. After a close start Isaac proved too smart and ran out a 6-2,6-0 winner to narrow Surrey’s overall margin.
Nick Nugent led the line up for Surrey but was up against the very tough and in form James Davis. Despite a closer second set, Davis proved too strong and match tight against an opponent who was making his County Cup return after back surgery 24 months ago. Davis wins 6-0,6-2
With the singles all square at 3-3 and our doubles line up shaken by the unavailability of Alistair – things were going to get twitchy!
At no.3 doubles we put out Ben Draper/Damian Rodriguez who put together a great performance in beating their Kent counterparts in a match tiebreak. Surrey win 6-2,1-6,10-5.
Our no.2 pairing of Modica/Bartley never really got going against the very solid pairing of Wright/Summers and lost a fairly straightforward match 3-6,3-6 to take the whole tie down to the final match.
Nugent/Stevenson were up against Stoute/Juniper and after a closely contested first set the Kent pair proved a little too strong for our Surrey boys and the match, along with the tie, fizzled away 3-6, 1-6.
After a tough battle Day 1 had finished with a very narrow 4-5 defeat to a strong and motivated home Kent side. Cheshire beat Leicestershire 8-1
Day 2 vs Cheshire
With Alistair out injured Surrey made one change and brought in Damian Rodriguez to play at no.6. Damian got off to a strong start winning a strong first set 6-2. His opponent fought back to level the match before Damian regrouped to hold on for a 6-4 third set victory in his U18 singles debut winning 6-2,3-6,6-4
Lamar completely dominated his opponent at no.5 singles. His aggressive all court game was on top form and he won 6-0,6-1.
Ben put on a ‘men’s tennis master class’ and overwhelmed Jordan Grocott
6-1,6-2 to ensure that Surrey kept a clean sheet.
Luke followed in similar fashion and made short work of an able but limited opponent in winning at no.3 6-2,6-3.
Sacha played one of the best matches of the day in disposing of a very strong Jamie Oakes 6-4,6-3 and showed why he still has so much to offer to Surrey tennis.
The last singles of the round was a fantastic battle between two very matched prospects. Nick Nugent for Surrey vs Adam Jones was a superb contest of similar game styles with strong baseline rallies being broken up by some deft touches and great use of the court. Nick took the first set 6-2 only to be dragged back with Adam winning the second 3-6 and with both players missing chances late in the third set, a tie break would be the only way to separate two great players.
Nick having got off to a slow start fought back and squeezed the life out of his opponent with some great returning and super hustling and deservedly won the tie break 7-5 and secured a 5-0 clean sweep of the singles!
Our doubles line up of: Battista/Faull, Draper/Rodriguez and Modica/Nugent all played very well and managed an equally dominant doubles display.
9-0 Surrey against a pretty strong Cheshire side was a very heartwarming reaction to the previous days’ disappointment. Kent beat Leicestershire 8-1
Day 3 vs Leicestershire
Unfortunately, due to playing Kent on the first day, it looked like things were already ‘done and dusted’ and it quickly became clear that this was indeed the case. With only one team going up it was clear that our priority was to involve all of the Surrey boys on Day 3 and to give those players in their last year a good send off, whilst ensuring that the boys returning next year got some valuable experience.
The final line up was:
- Luke Stevenson
- Ben Draper
- Damian Rodriguez
- Lawrence Perrin
- Andrew Faull
- Max Battista
Doubles:
- Modica/Rodriguez
- Bartley/Draper
- Battista/Nugent
Max playing in his first (and last due to age) junior county cup singles match, put in a focused performance to start the day off well in beating Daniel Tarokh in a match lasting over two hours. He won 7-5, 7-5
Andrew got some valuable experience playing at no.5 but couldn’t quite extend his match to a third set losing out 2-6,6-7 but he will be back next year to put his experience to good use!
Huge credit to Lawrence Perrin who having been out for several months with a knee injury was playing in only his third singles match in five months. He put on a great display in winning 6-2,6-1 and we look forward to seeing him next year also.
Our top three boys are all returning next year and so it was great to see Damian, Ben and Luke beat opponents in convincing fashion to seal a comfortable 5-1 lead after the singles.
Meanwhile, Kent were beating Cheshire in similar style and it wasn’t long before they had achieved 5 rubbers to ensure the Division 2 title. All matches were stopped at this stage and the presentation committee prepared themselves.
It was a shame to play Kent on the first day as it would have made the final day a real ‘final’ had we been playing them for the title and Cheshire been playing Leicestershire for survival but either way we had one of the best weekends ever as all the Surrey boys and parents bonded fantastically and had a lot of fun!
Many thanks and good luck to Lamar Bartley, Nick Nugent, Max Battista and Sacha Modica who now exit junior team tennis for Surrey – we hope that they continue to work hard at their games and put themselves in contention for a call up to the senior teams in years to come.
A special thank you my partner in crime for the weekend, Team Coach Jono Ward who makes a massive difference to my personal enjoyment during the three days and whom I know the boys respect a great deal. Thank you Jono!
A big thank you to all of the Surrey parents who supported so well and a special thanks to Rosy Nugent who produced treats for us all on each of the three days…Day 1 – Cookies, Day 2 – Brownies, Day 3 – County Cup Cakes! All homemade and thoroughly delicious!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT SURREY PARENTS
Huge thanks to Tim Sagar who not only organised the entire event with me but who gave up his Saturday to join us. His support was awesome! Chris Risebro joined us on Sunday to continue the ‘Surrey Office cheers’ and we are very grateful for your commitment on a day off! It was also great to see Carole and John Pullen join us for Sundays’ play – they are long standing supporters of the Surrey teams and their presence is greatly valued.
Finally, congratulations to Kent for re-joining Division 1 and I hope that they are still there when we hope to join you in 2017. Our young team will be strengthened by a good crop of hungry scrappers ready to ensure that the Surrey boys enjoy a successful end to the millennium’s second decade!!
Until then we will celebrate being runners-up in Division 2!
Justin Sherring
Surrey U18 Boys Team Manager
Tennis Surrey