Most of our top 95 and 96ers are playing in this event, which has attracted a strong entry list, as it comes a week before the prestigious Les Petits As tournament in Tarbes. We currently have 3 boys ranked in the top 10 in Europe in this age bracket, and one of these, Evan Hoyt, has reached the semi-final by upsetting the number 2 seed. In addition Evan is in the doubles final with Luke Bambridge.
Katy Dunne is our only girl ranked in the top 20, and she has also reached the semi-finals, surprising the number 3 seed. The other three semi-finalists are all American, including Sachia Vickery who is already ranked inside the top 100 at under 18 level. Orange Bowl under 12 semifinalist Eleanor Dean has won the consolation singles.
I think that the 1995 girls are a pretty weak bunch to be honest. Does anyone else think that? There are only a handful who are anywhere near beating the best 1994s andare a very long way behind the strong 1993s. What about the 1996 crop? Any good?
One of the problems for the girls is the lack of numbers playing. That makes it difficult to find a high level of competition here, exacerbated by several opting to go abroad, so when in some years there is no-one achieving a lot by world standards it is hard to push the general level of the top players up - unlike the boys 1995, where there are several challenging each other, with 5 in the TE top 20.
Katy lost her semi but Evan came through two tiebreaks to reach the final against the number 1 seed, Nikola Milojevic of Serbia (ranked 1 in Europe), who has yet to drop a set. Evan then secured the doubles title with Luke
