The 2018 MiddlesexCounty Championships took place at Hazelwood Sports Club and Vicars Moor LTC inthe last week of August organised by our 2017 official of the year Brenda Stewart.

It was great to see players from Middlesex getting together, to compete in the end of year championship’s and especially with players hanging around to watch, support friends and doubles partners which added to the amazing atmosphere at both Hazelwood and Vicars Moor.

Brenda Stewart, our referee, managed the entries, draws, players and parents prior to and throughout the Championships. We had 477 entries from 302 players across 26 events, an enormous task.

Thank you also to Boon Teik Lim (assistant referee), our Court Supervisors (Dom, Willem, Adam, Oliver, Connor), Mini Tennis Scorers, LTA umpires for Finals day and the tournament committee (Sangeeta Arora, John Love, Laura Marks, Andrew Lewandowski and Nick Bass).

Highlights of the week include:

9 and Under Orange Ball Tournament‍

The standard of our Mini Tennis players is very high and competitive, which was highlighted through the this event. 12 boys played in a competitive qualifying event for the five main draw spaces.  There were 10 three sets matches with the longest match lasting 39 minutes. Alex Murray, Jude Read, Kasra Shirazi and Pierre-Henri qualified via 1st and 2nd place with Alex Milicic joining them as best third place.  

There was a slight delay to proceedings on Wednesday due to rain, however we were up and running by 1030 am. The 16 boys played a Compass draw to get winner and placings for players. Trian and Denzel came through their matches to reach the final with loss of only one set each. Using last years’ experience, Trian comfortably won 7-1 7-2 In the final to become the 9U champion for the 2nd year in a row. Denzel played very well to reach the final and has another chance to take the title in 2019.

In the girl’s event we played two round robin groups, with the top 2 players reaching the Semi-finals. A quarter of the matches in the round robin stage were 3 set matches and it was great to see some more girls competing at this level.  In the first semi-final Group A winner – Celine played Group B Runner-up – Akousa.  Celine took the match 7-4 7-1.

The other semi-final was a much closer affair with Hollie coming through against Daniela 4–7 7-2 8-6 in a match with some great rallies and shots from both players. Cumberland training partners Hollie and Celine competed in an entertaining final with Hollie prevailing 7-3 7-2.

After each of the events we organised some doubles matches for players to enjoy and ease up after the singles and getting to know other players little bit better.

We were very impressed with the high standard of Fair play across the two days and it was very hard to choose our fair play award winners. We awarded Jude Read (boys) and Akousa Larbi-Mensah (Girls) in addition to Sebastian Simler who was nominated by one of his opponents in our weeklong Fair Play Awards. Three players were awarded and recognised for being encouraging to their opponents throughout the match and enjoying the tennis matches win or lose.

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Red ball 8U Event

2018 was a bigger event with 10 more boys and four more girls competing for the 8U boy’s and girl’s titles. All players played in round robin groups with two players from each group going through to the main compass Draw, all other players competing in extra matches. The girls 8U finalists were

Amani Osman and Sasha Zlotnik with Sasha coming through 10-4 in an entertaining final. In the boys final it was Adhiraj Dewan and Vincent Lusnia. Having recently competed against each other this year in the Babolat Mini Masters Series Finals, Adhiraj again came through a convincing win 10-4 in the final.

Winners were presented the medals by former Brazilian number one wheelchair player Samantha Bullock (Silver medallist at the Para Pan Am games in 2007).
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Finals day‍

What truly made the final state was sunny warm weather (what the organisers have the most control over, obviously). We play 21 finals from 10U Singles to Open Men’s Doubles. A mixture of three set matches and some slightly more convincing wins.

Click here for a full list of winners and results.
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Notable results:

10U Boys Singles

Teo beat Lorenzo in a very tight much coming through 13-11 in the match tie-break. Both players played competitive and were level with both players having chances in the match tie-break and Teo successfully saving a few Championship points along the way.


10U Girls‍

In the 10U girls, Hollie was competing in her second final of the week against Sophie. Both players had convincing wins to reach the final and gave it their all. Hollie had a strong start to the march to take the first set for two but in the second set Sophie stepped up their game to level the match and in the match tie-break was very convincing to take it 10 to 4.

12U Singles‍

12 under boys and girls is a special event because it is also a qualifying tournament from Middlesex sponsors – Babolat for their Babolat Cup competition. With the Champions getting the chance to compete against other county winners at Edgbaston Priory in September.

In a very competitive match Anjali Kotecha raced to a 1 set lead against last year’s winner Amelie Brooks. Amelie stepped up her game in the second set and came through 7-5. The match tie-break was very close again both players had chances and Amelie was able to defend her title take in the match tie-break 10-7. In the boys it was Luca Bluett against Kim Sikka, Luca continued his dominance with a 6-3 6-1 win, defending his 2017 title.

Veronica Hughes managed to take the 18 girls and Open Ladies titles with convincing wins against Camilla and Mayela. Mayela and Camilla teamed up to win the 16U girls doubles titles.

The Fair Play winners of the week were Sebastian Simler, Tony Stefanov and Mr and Mrs Kotecha.

Sebastian and Tony were given the awards for being encouraging to their opponents including congratulating good shots throughout their matches. Mr and Mrs

The 2018 Middlesex County Championships took place at Hazelwood Sports Club and Vicars Moor LTC in the last week of August organised by our 2017 official of the year Brenda Stewart.

Click here to see more photos from the week.