Tennis Works

Summer success has already begun for Milton Keynes based Cavill Academy, as 3 players won their categories at the Kingston Windows LTA Junior Tournament.

The Riverside Tennis Club in Bedford hosted the LTA grade 4 junior tournament, with over 200 players entering the week-long event that was held between 9th and 14th April. The Cavill Academy had 5 players competing in the Under 14’s girls, Under 12’s Boys, Under 10’s girls, Under 10’s Boys and Under 10’s Mini Tennis Green events.

On the Thursday, 9-year old Brian Hornsby stood out from the rest as he won the Mini Tennis Green event with an impressive 4-0 victory in the final. The event had 27 competitors and all started the tournament by competing in the group stages with the qualifiers moving into the quarterfinals. Brian continued through the semi finals onto the finals with ease, as his confidence and performance won him the title.

At the start of the week three Cavill Academy players competed in the group stages of the Under 10’s. In the boy’s section, Brian lost to both his opponents in his group after having a low-confidence day and losing concentration throughout the matches. He then went on to play 2 consolation matches the day after and put in a fine performance of consistent tennis and won both matches in 3 sets.

9-year old Kyle MacQueen qualified 2nd in his group after winning 2 matches and losing to Ben Kerindi after a tough first set. Kyle went on to win his semi final in comfortable fashion, which set up another encounter against Ben in the final that took place on the Saturday. In the final Kyle stormed out of the blocks to take the first set 4-1 and Ben showed true strength to level the match in a second set tiebreaker. Kyle eventually regained composure and played some fantastic tennis to eventually take the third set and the Boys Under 10’s title. Kyle also competed in the boys Under 12’s section and managed to reach the 2nd round before being beaten by the eventual semi-finalist.

In the Girls Under 10’s, 9-year old Georgie Sanders played some very aggressive tennis to top her group and book a place in the semi-finals. She also comfortably won her semi-finals match and came up against Riverside’s Helen Knight in the final. Georgie started well, going 2-0 up in the first set and then Helen found her rhythm to take the set 4-2. The second set was a closer encounter as each girl showed great determination to make an impact on the other. Georgie managed to pull through and won it 5-4 after taking the second set tiebreaker 7-1. The third set was decided in a championship tiebreaker, which is the first to 10 with 2 clear points. The match was starting to slip away from Georgie as her opponent was leading 9-5 with 4 match points. Georgie dug deep and showed brutal determination to save all the match points and eventually closed the match out to take the title after winning 12-10 in the third set tiebreaker.

Cavill Academy Head Coach, John Cavill, said, “I am delighted with the youngsters performances, as all of them had to battle hard and up their game when needed. It is easy to get carried away but this is just the start of what will be another great year for the academy as they learn how to compete and deal with the pressures tennis provides. I’m sure they will have many more tough encounters, some they will lose, but at the moment I’m glad they can enjoy their success as they have all worked very hard throughout the winter.”

Freya Berkin and Megan Jones both competed in the girls Under 14’s event with both players having very tough first round matches, which they lost. The players continued in the consolation draw, which Megan eventually made the final and won 6-2, 6-3.

Released: 16 April 2007