...which Matilda did comfortably, though she hasn't been having a great time of it recently, losing well before her seeding position in a couple of strong U14 events. With the boys losing early in doubles all British interest focuses on Matilda in singles and doubles
Girls R2
(15) Matilda Mutavdzic d. Lizi Dolidze (GEO) 6-1 6-0
Matilda cruises again, but she is up against in round 4. She plays the TE1 who is also the second highest ITF ranked 2004 (behind Coco Gauff, on a limited schedule)
Girls R3
(15) Matilda Mutavdzic d. Klio Maria Ioannou (CYP) 6-1 6-0
The U14 European Championship title winners were the French lad, Sean Cuenin (age 14) and young Czech player Linda Noskova (age 13)
Slightly suspicious of Sean's success as he is such a tall lad for his age and that's something that will almost certainly even out over the next few years and might affect his competitive advantage.
However, just for info re him and the system, Sean played tennis within his club structure as a tiddler, with extra coaching (both in group and individually) from the federation at the local federation county headquarters.
At age 12, he left home and moved to one of the CREPS, the centres for sporting excellence and training. It's full time, boarding, lots of other kids, across lots of sports (each centre tends to specialise in certain ones, with most covering the basic ones too).
On average, you get all your school lessons and 16 hours of sport training on top. As well as some other stuff.
The cost (I believe) is something of the order of Euro 3k p.a. However, a large chunk of that can usually be got back from grants from the city and county sport councils. As well as, occasionally, other sponsors.
