TALENTED YOUNG tennis players from Saddleworth have set their sights on the All England Club after taking part in the HSBC Road to Wimbledon 2015 competition.
Seventeen boys and girls aged 14 and under took to the courts at Tame Valley Tennis Club in Greenfield in a bid to win the club crown and progress in the competition.
In the boys event, the semi-finalists were Henry Brown, Matthew White, Archie Duncan and Joe Lamb before a fiercely contested final saw Matthew defeat Archie 7-5.
Gabriel Taylor-Wrigley was the convincing winner of the boys’ consolation tournament.
Meanwhile, in the girls event, semi-finalists Poppy Brown, Lucy Duncan and Kate Matthias competed before Lucy and Kate faced each other in the final.
The overall winner was Lucy, who had impressively won each of her matches to qualify by lunchtime, winning each set 6-2.
Ashley Matthias and Drew Duncan, event umpires, said: “The weather held off to allow the future of tennis in the area to compete against each other.
“After some very close matches, a very competitive boys final resulted in a close win for Matthew.
“Archie fought back from losing the first two games to make it five games all. Matthew dug deep to run out the eventual winner 7-5 in a fantastic final of high quality tennis.
“The girls competed equally as well with Lucy winning. All competitors were a credit and competed fairly and to the best of their abilities.
“Matthew and Lucy are now once step closer to playing on the grass on the famous Wimbledon courts.
“Our thanks go to the organisers of the Tame Valley event and to the parents, friends and competitors for making it such a special day.”
Matthew and Lucy will now compete in the county finals on July 11/12 and will be hoping to progress to the third stage – the national finals at Wimbledon.
The Road To Wimbledon competition features 20,000 juniors from over 750 clubs and schools and encourages youngsters of all standards to play and enjoy competitive tennis.
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