The Winter Cup season has started with qualifying for the under 12s. Both the boys (Max Hodkinson, playing in the event for the second time, Tomas Gabor and Cameron Rae ) and girls (Honey Robinson, Milla Bray and Coco Witton) received a bye in today's first qualifying round. Tomorrow the boys take on either their hosts Czechia or Ukraine and the girls play Greece. Normally a place in the finals would be at stake, but the under 12 finals will be held in Sunderland, so I think we will be in the finals as host nation regardless of whether we qualify through the group.
Qualifying for the under 14s and under 16s start next Wednesday or Friday (depending on the event)
The under 12 girls won their 3rd-4th place match 2-1 against Poland (Coco won 6-2 6-1 and teamed up with Honey, a sweet sounding combination, to take the doubles, after defeat for Milla). The under 12 boys also took third place by beating Croatia 2-0 with straight-set wins for Cameron and Tomas
The under 14 boys and under 16 girls start their qualification journey tomorrow. The boys are in Turkey, and the team of Haqim Kamal, Kamran Arif and Myles Kiely take on Lithuania tomorrow, but are in the same half of the draw as the group's top qualifying seed Czechia.
The girls team of Daniella Britton, Edie Griffiths and Annabel Wong are in Portugal, probably seeded 3, but their draw isn't currently up.
Tennis Europe have also confirmed that our under 12 teams will be in the finals, as hosts, despite not qualifying through their groups (it meant only one nation qualified from their groups, instead of the usual two).
Danielle and Annabel are definitely both bottom age for U16
I don't recognise any of the U12's, so the names from last year must have moved up an age group
Yes,Girls were all top 11U players who have moved up. Honey trains at Delgado and Lee, Coco (who replaced Kaya) trains at Nottingham RPDC and Milla is from Sevenoaks (not sure where she is training now)
All 3 represented GB in friendly matches in 11U
Other top 2 that stand out are Emma Fu and Sahara Baptiste - not sure why neither of those were selected
The under 14 boys had a comfortable win against Lithuania, with Kamran and Haqim posting straight sets wins before Kamran paired up with Myles to win the doubles. As expected they will play top qualifying seeds Czechia for a place in the final.
The under 16 girls were drawn against Finland and currently lead 1-0 after Edie claimed a 3 set win. If they go on to win they will play top qualifying seeds Spain for a place in the final