Last weekend saw the culmination of the Oxfordshire Mini Tennis Champions Race when the titles were decided at the Finals held at the White Horse Leisure & Tennis Centre.The Players had qualified for the event by finishing in the top 8 of the Mini Tennis Leaderboards having gained points by competing in club competitions throughout the summer.
The 8U boys title was claimed by Ned Batstone who plaed consistent tennis and won all of his matches. There were lots of well fought matches played in good spirit. Runner up Oliver Broadhurst was taken to 13-11 by both James hemstead and Luke Charlesworth. The winner of the 8U girls was Laila Zugic. All girls participating won at least one match. The last match of the girls event between Laila and Hannah Craig determined the winner. After some very good long rallies with both players having chances Laila ran out the winner by 10-6. Laila said 'I really enjoyed the tournament on Sunday because I like paying tennis very much. The other girls are always very nice and I always get a certificate. This time I also got a cup and I showed it to my brother! I will show the cup to my school in assembly on Friday. I am very happy to play tennis.'
The 9U event saw Benedict Yorston claim the boys title. Benedict won all of his matches playing some consistent and high percentage tennis. When he had chances to finish the point he did. Cameron Ferguson did well to take him to 9-11 in the first tie break of their match. Benedict said 'When I won the Orange finals on Sunday I was delighted. I had finished 4th in the league, therefore claiming my place in the finals. I knew I would play some players that were not just pretty good at forehand, but people that were amazing at everything. When the day arrived I knew I was right. My best match was probably against Cameron Ferguson. In the first tie-break I was leading 6-3 but Cameron pulled it back to 8-7 before I finally won 11-9. In the second set Cameron did some great strokes but I managed to win it 7-3. I congratulate all the boys who played, who all gave me fabulous matches. I would like to thank all of my coaches who have brought me this far.'
Leo Winyard had to fight to eventually win against David Obradovic in 3 match tie breaks and only lost to Benedict Yorston making him the runner up. Leo said 'On Sunday I had a great time - all the matches were close. I love the medal from the LTA with special writing. I liked playing lots of times over the summer, especially in the country at Wychwood, Benson, Cholsey and Windrush.'
The 9U girls competed in two round robin boxes. Box A saw Amelia Efthimiou and Annabelle Denly getting places in the final knockout. Their match was a 3 set tiebreak with Annabelle getting 10-8 in the third. In Box B Lauren Keeler and Saffy Gujral made it to the knockouts. The final saw Lauren Keeler play Annabelle Denly over 3 tiebreaks with Lauren winning the match to claim the girls title.
The 10U boys and girls finals were played on the Saturday and saw some great matches. Cameron Price won all of his matches to take the boys title with Harrison Ridge coming runner up having only lost one match to Cameron. The girls event was played with two round robin boxes with Asha Badiani, Taysie Gujral, Jessica Lythgoe and Molly Naylor going through to the knockout round. Asha met taysie in the final winning 4-0 to become the girls 10U winner.
Referee Liz Bamber said "The Mini Green Champions race Finals for boys and girls was a great success, congratulations to all the children that took part. Above all as a referee I was so impressed with the way the boys and girls behaved on court - I was not called upon once to intervene, all the matches were played fairly and I wish them all success in their tennis playing for many years to come. Well done!"
Many thanks go to both referees Liz Fidler and Liz Bamber for making the event run so smoothly. Thank you also to Tom Eagle and Joe Butchers who helped with setting up courts and scoring, along with the parents who took turns in scoring matches.