Boys & Girls: 2025 U16 Junior National Championships, NTC, acrylic (Week 15)

paulisi · Tennis legend

RE: Boys & Girls: 2025 U16/U18 Junior National Championships, NTC, acrylic (Weeks 15/16)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Rose wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Not much really for Hollie to play for

She's the reigning champion anyway, so already got it on her CV

And she's almost certain to get the junior wildcard anyway, I'd have thought, so doesn't really need that either
Its a condition that no one gets wildcards for the summer events if they dont play the national championships. Hollie had to play. (Same with Hannah and Mika.) If they cant play due to injury or illness they have to provide evidence.
If a player is unable to play the Lexus National Junior Championships due to illness or injury, the player must produce suitable medical evidence supporting the decision to withdraw. Players that do not do this will not be eligible for any wildcards into the summer grass court events.

Winner of the 16U girls gets:
Wild card for Wimbledon Junior Championships Main Draw
Wild card for 1 x ITF W35 event (April/May 2025) Main Draw
Wild card for ITF J300 Roehampton Main Draw
Wild card for ITF J200 Aldershot (April 2025) Main Draw

Finalist gets:
Wild card for Wimbledon Junior Championships Qualifying

-- Edited by Rose on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 10:59:05 PM

Yes, but (a) there are exemptions (and 'exceptional circumstances' get-outs)

"Junior players are required to play in the Junior National Championships (unless exempt or there are exceptional circumstances as to why it is not possible to do so) to be eligible for LTA [WTA grass court] wildcards or wildcard nominations to [Wimbledon]" - LTA Wimbledon nominations and LTA Major Events Wildcard policy.

Hence why Mimi is not playing next week - I mean, I assume Mimi will get her wildcards even though she's not playing?

And (b) Hollie still hasn't much to play for i.e. I know she has to turn up but her heart may well not really be in it as there's nothing really on the line for her

Var · Satellite level

Coup Droit wrote:
Rose wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Not much really for Hollie to play for

She's the reigning champion anyway, so already got it on her CV

And she's almost certain to get the junior wildcard anyway, I'd have thought, so doesn't really need that either
Its a condition that no one gets wildcards for the summer events if they dont play the national championships. Hollie had to play. (Same with Hannah and Mika.) If they cant play due to injury or illness they have to provide evidence.
If a player is unable to play the Lexus National Junior Championships due to illness or injury, the player must produce suitable medical evidence supporting the decision to withdraw. Players that do not do this will not be eligible for any wildcards into the summer grass court events.

Winner of the 16U girls gets:
Wild card for Wimbledon Junior Championships Main Draw
Wild card for 1 x ITF W35 event (April/May 2025) Main Draw
Wild card for ITF J300 Roehampton Main Draw
Wild card for ITF J200 Aldershot (April 2025) Main Draw

Finalist gets:
Wild card for Wimbledon Junior Championships Qualifying

-- Edited by Rose on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 10:59:05 PM
Yes, but (a) there are exemptions (and 'exceptional circumstances' get-outs)
"Junior players are required to play in the Junior National Championships (unless exempt or there are exceptional circumstances as to why it is not possible to do so) to be eligible for LTA [WTA grass court] wildcards or wildcard nominations to [Wimbledon]" - LTA Wimbledon nominations and LTA Major Events Wildcard policy.
Hence why Mimi is not playing next week - I mean, I assume Mimi will get her wildcards even though she's not playing?
And (b) Hollie still hasn't much to play for i.e. I know she has to turn up but her heart may well not really be in it as there's nothing really on the line for her

Have to say, I havent seen any entries for Mimi recently following her withdrawal from the W100 field in Japan. Injury? Not sure. Nothing on socials either which is unusual

dodrade · Futures qualifying

Coup Droit wrote:
Young April (2010) Sackflame (and seemingly there are only 5 people in the world with that name????) came through in two sets

There must surely be more Sackflames out there, sounds like a job for Dave Gorman!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ok, young Lorimer, there's no point throwing your arms in the air and shouting at the umpire 'are you sure'? about an out call when the ball was 6 inches out

The boys SFs are currently going on

Age is pretty important, especially for boys. We have 2 x 2010-born and 2 x 2009-born

Aran Selvaraasan gets special mention as the youngest - Nov 2010
Then, Eric Lorimer - May 2010

Vincent Fletcher and Brandon Ratanavong are both 2009-ers - don't know their dates of birth

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Congratulations, young Aran !!!!

I thought Eric Lorimer would have the experience to see him through

But Aran absolutely sailed through, yet again

So that's his Wimbledon qualifiers spot in the draw guaranteed, at a minimum

Again, I have SO enjoyed watching his matches this week, right from the get-go. Lovely natural ball striking. Still quite a small, 'young' lad in his body, which is not surprising given his age.

SF:

(q) Aran Selvaraasan def. (3) Eric Lorimer 6-3 6-2

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

One to watch out for, then!

Out of interesting, what is Aran's family background - trying to work out where that surname would come from, somewhere like Armenia maybe?

Oscariyan · Strong Club Player

Coup Droit wrote:
Congratulations, young Aran !!!!

I thought Eric Lorimer would have the experience to see him through

But Aran absolutely sailed through, yet again

So that's his Wimbledon qualifiers spot in the draw guaranteed, at a minimum

Again, I have SO enjoyed watching his matches this week, right from the get-go. Lovely natural ball striking. Still quite a small, 'young' lad in his body, which is not surprising given his age.

SF:

(q) Aran Selvaraasan def. (3) Eric Lorimer 6-3 6-2

Yes so impressive this week. Hopefully he will get his Q spot in J200 Aldershot upgraded to a MD WC along with other opportunities because he has shown he deserves them just as much as the 3 Loughborough boys.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
Brandon is more than capable of winning the boys event.

Meg and Annabel are very good friends, so must have been difficult mentally. Should be a Meg v Hollie final

Brandon let you down, I'm afraid, paulisi

He played OK, nice athletic tennis, but in the first set it was very tight and he lost his head right at the end - just gave away the set. And never really recovered.

Well done to Vincent Fletcher, whom I'd never seen before. He did what had to be done, and kept it solid.

SF: (8) Vincent Fletcher def. (4) Brandon Ratanavong 7-5 6-2

PS I'm not sure I buy off on the point about Meg and Annabel being friends either - they played each other a month ago and Meg won 6-4 6-0 - miles more easily - and presumably they were just as good friends then?

paulisi · Tennis legend

Vincent Fletcher when I've seen him play has been very erratic.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Interesting boys final then - two names completely new to me this week!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Bragging rights in the girls go to Rose

Most people were predicting Hollie for the final

But she was thrashed by Daniella

6-2 6-1

Not a contest - Daniella was more dynamic, more solid, inside her line more, coming to the net to vary things, serving quite well

And Hollie just didn't have any answers.....

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
Vincent Fletcher when I've seen him play has been very erratic.

Nothing against Vincent but I do hope he's a bit more erratic tomorrow then - I've got such a big soft spot for Aran after this week - it would be lovely if he won (though all the best to Vincent too, of course)

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

In the doubles, same 4 girls are in the final as the singles semis:

Megan/Hollie v Daniela/Edie

Boys doubles is

Rhys Lawler / Eric Lorimer v Leo Wright/ Murray Watters

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Girls SFs:

(4) Dani Britton def. (1) Hollie Smart 6-2 6-1

(3) Megan Knight def. (5) Edie Griffiths 6-1 6-3

Meg's first set was very quick and decisive - Edie making far too many faults. The second set was a lot closer, could easily have been 6-4, but Meg most definitely deserved it.

So, barring Hannah, the 2009-ers have been kicked into touch by the youngsters

Meg and Dani are practically the same age - only about 3 months in it - will be interesting.....

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 10th of April 2025 12:42:44 PM