The U18 Tennis team had a fantastic week in Nottingham at the 2024 LTA Youth Schools National Championship Tennis Finals. The top 16 schools in the country qualified to play in the Championships and had 4 days of matches held at the prestigious Nottingham Tennis Centre. The team of Sofia, Lola, Nancy, Iraja and Emily travelled up on Monday and faced Peter Simmons College on Tuesday morning, winning the match 12-0. This put them in the top 8 schools in GB.
On Wednesday they faced a tough challenge against 3rd seed Culford in scorching hot conditions. After four very tight singles matches, three of which went to a 3rd set tiebreak we went 3-1 down. We needed to win both doubles to draw level and despite some amazing rallying went down in both matches so lost 5-1. On Thursday we faced Eastbourne College and had an afternoon match starting about 3pm. The girls played some amazing tennis going 3-1 up in the singles and added a doubles win to score a 4-2 win. The matches were long and they didn’t leave the tennis court until 8.30pm so a takeaway pizza was the only option!
Friday was the final day of play and TH were playing for 5th/6th place. The temperatures were slightly cooler giving us a little respite from the heat over the week. The team faced number 1 seed Surbiton. The girls could not be faulted for their effort levels, high standard of tennis and determination and finished the singles 3-1 up. Surbiton stepped up their level for the doubles and won both matches to level the match 3-3. Surbiton had the momentum and despite battling hard in the match shoot TH went down so were awarded 6th place in Great Britain.
What a fantastic week! The girls represented Talbot Heath and West Hants very well and should be very proud of their endeavours. Special thanks to Lola who leaves the school this summer for her 5 years of representing the Tennis Academy. Thanks go to Mrs Camp for accompanying and supporting the students.
