U18 Girls County Cup

Team: Robyn Went (Beaconsfield, Halton), Emily Marshall (Stony Stratford), Alisha Ndukwu (London), Shravanti Venkatakrishnan (Stony Stratford), Elizabeth Surkova (Great Missenden), Molly Dallas (Halton), Moki Chinthaparthi (Halton), Myah Chang-Harper (Tring), Hannah Bark-Jones (Halton, Maidenhead)

Captains: Jemima King, Alexa Wilson

This year the 18&U girls team had no players in their last year, so a young team was motivated to top the group knowing that the girls team has come 2nd in Group 3 for the past 6 or so years.  Five new players to the 18&U team so a few fun initiations throughout the event had been planned!! We knew on paper that the other counties were closely matched but as we know matches aren’t won on paper. ‘No regrets’, ‘Grit’ and ‘Determination’ were the key words for the weekend.

Here are a few highlights from each day:

Day 1 9-0 win vs West of Scotland. The day couldn’t have gone better for the swans. The overall score may sound convincing, but we had several players that overperformed throughout the day coming through some close matches.  Alisha, Shravanti and Myah all came through tight singles matches in two close sets and one third set battle. Despite Shravanti’s opponent showing some inspired tennis to take the 2nd set, Shravanti showed her determination and competitiveness to close shop in the 3rd and win 6-2 Robyn, Elizabeth and Emily didn’t allow their opponents any room to get involved and all singles were won.  Three dominating doubles performances next with new pairings of Elizabeth/Molly, Shravanti/Emily and Alisha/Robyn. It was great to see the girls putting into practice what they have been working on in the training sessions. The swans were dominating the net, changing up the tempo using lobs to disrupt their opponent’s rhythm and being creative and brave with serving set plays. A great comeback from Emily/Shravanti coming from a set down to win 10-8 in the third. With a young team, Molly still 14&U it was encouraging to see the doubles movements and positive gutsy tennis. Day 1 ended with a win, and this hasn’t happened in quite a few years. The girls were buzzing but knew the weekend was only going to get harder.

Day 2 win vs South Wales 6-3. The singles lineup stayed the same as Friday’s lineup. Elizabeth made light work of her opponent to seal victory with some stunning one-handed backhand winners. Myah’s opponent was just too consistent for her and proved to be too strong, 1-1 in matches. Onto the court went Robyn and Emily. Emily showed a gusty performance with the match going on for longer than 2.5 hours, 5-7 7-5 6-2. 2-1 down in the 3rd set she dug in showed grit and strength and won the next 5 games to seal victory. Robyn lost one game in her match. 3-1 Bucks with Shravanti and Alisha up next.  Great to see both girls showing some dominating tactics and not allowing their opponents any room to take control of the match. Attacking with precision and power and Bucks seal victory on Day 2 5-1 after singles with doubles still to play. We shifted the pairings slightly with Pair 1 and 3 staying the same and brough Moki into play with Shravanti in the 2nd pairing. Moki came onto the court inspired and ready to perform and the girls took down two strong players to win 10-7 in the 3rd set. Unfortunately, the other two pairings knew their way around the doubles court and had a bit more energy and gutsiness than our girls.  Sussex also won on Day 2 so Day 3 was Bucks vs Sussex for promotion!

Day 3 5-4 win vs Sussex. The girls were pumped and excited to get on the court and start the battle for promotion. Alisha had to leave the team for a training camp in Spain so Moki came into play at number 6 with Elizabeth alongside her. The girls were doing a fantastic job supporting from the sidelines and the atmosphere was electric. Moki came up against a very consistent player who despite Moki trying to take control of the points proved to tough of an opponent on the day. Elizabeth was up against the Sussex number 5 who should have been number 2 in the lineup but had a lower ranking due to playing international events. Elizabeth tried her best to make her opponent uncomfortable, but it wasn’t enough to take the win. 2-0 to Sussex but the girls weren’t phased with Emily and Myah taking to the court. Emily knew to win her match she would need to be a rhythm wrecker and move her opponent out of her comfort zone so she couldn’t get the first strike and Emily could then dictate. Emily did this well and caused her opponent a lot of distress and frustration. 1-2 Bucks. Myah, energised and motivated to get the win for Bucks played smart, brave and committed tennis to win 6-4 6-2 and help the swans to 2-2 in matches. Up next Robyn and Shravanti against two opponents who were both top 100 in the country with Shravanti’s opponent training in Spain.  Robyn had won the first two days convincingly, so she knew this was going to be a battle. Inspired by her teammates Robyn was able to put out a patiently aggressive performance, playing with precision when needed and then pulling the trigger with power at the right time. Some gruelling points were on display with Robyn coming out on the winning end finishing with a drive volley, 7-5, 6-3.  Shravanti’s match went back and forth in both sets but she couldn’t quite find the momentum to change the match around, 3-3 going into the doubles. The atmosphere was electric.

After a team talk the coaches decided on the three pairings, trying to put together established pairings or pairings with a big hitter and a rhythm wrecker.  ‘No regrets’ was the common language at the change of end chat along with the three key words in doubles ‘energy, energy, energy’. The girls showed so much fight and courage in the doubles with the third pair, Molly/Elizabeth playing some inspired brave attacking tennis to win 6-2 6-4! 4-3 Bucks. Myah/Emily were pair two and they formed a great partnership with contrasting styles. We knew to win at 2 we needed to break their rhythm and take the net away from them as Sussex’s number 1 was in this pairing. The girls did a fantastic job of choosing when to lob and then when to strike with power and look for the volley with a variety of set plays when serving and returning.  It went to 1 set all, Bucks winning the first set but Sussex coming out firing in the 2nd. 3rd set breaker, if we won this then we would be champions. Robyn/Shravanti were on the next court and had just won the 1st set so the momentum felt like it was in Bucks’ favour.  Emily/Myah came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders and took an early lead to go 5-1 up. It started to get a little closer but the pair stuck with their tactics and after a huge serve from Myah and 7-5 and a fortunate missed smash from the opponents we went 9-6 up! Promotion point, big T serve from Myah with Emily finishing at the net, game set match to Bucks and sealed promotion to Group after 6 years of waiting.

Coaches were extremely proud of the girls for their commitment to be great team players, their passion and determination to win, the grit and determination they showed and having no regrets on the court.  With a young team we know the squad is only going to get stronger for next year with a new challenge in Group 2.

Jemima