By: Trevor Wright – Tennis Coach, Framlingham College |
Framlingham College held its annual internal Under 14 Road to Wimbledon singles Championships last week. Playing at the Prep School, 14 boys and 9 girls contested a total of 27 one set matches which were all played with exceptional sportsmanship and spirit.
In the girl’s event 10 year old Mia Spaull had two excellent wins against older opponents. She beat India Prince 6-2 in the quarter finals and won 6-1 against Hollie Dring-Richardson in the 3rd /4th place play off.
Evie Newton also had two close fought victories against Amelie Bull (6-3) and then Hollie Dring-Richardson (6-4) in the semi-final.
In the final Evie was up against last year’s champion Beth Gardens and started very brightly to take a 3-1 lead, however Beth dug in deep and made her game more consistent as the match went on and ran out a deserved 6-3 winner.
In the boy’s event another 10 year old, Alfie Paffett also won two very close matches against older players to reach the semi-finals with victory against Myles Gurr on the tie-break in the first round, followed by a 6-4 win against Tom Cullen.
Alfie’s brother Freddie was also a semi-finalist with victories over both the Aldous brothers, but was just denied the chance to contest the final by Ben Smart who won on a tie-break following an extremely close encounter. The final was a repeat of last year with Ben versus Nat Salsby, who reached the final without losing a single game in his 3 victories.
The final was a classic with both boys playing with great flair and tempo, and after 6 games the score was all square, then Nat stepped up his penetrative cross court forehand and increased his first serve percentage to run out a deserved 6-3 winner.
Both Nat and Beth qualify for the Suffolk finals in July, with the winners of the County final qualifying for the National finals at Wimbledon in August.
