'Huge success' for GB at FIP Junior World Cup
• 2 MINUTE READ
Great Britain's boys' and girls' teams enjoyed a "fantastic learning experience" as they narrowly missed out on qualifying for the main draw at the FIP Junior World Cup in Costa Daurada, Spain, last weekend.
The LTA provided funding to support both boys' and girls' participation in the competition, with a bumper 17-player squad led by a team of coaches - Libby Fletcher and Frankie Langan for the boys and Miguel Caramalho and Lisa Phillips for the girls.
The qualifiers began on Friday 26 September and were split into European, America and Africa-Asia sections. There were 13 teams in boys' European qualifying and 10 in the girls', each split into groups. Each fixture consisted of three matches: U14, U16 and U18.
GB boys were drawn with Finland, Switzerland Hungary and completed a confident clean sweep by winning all matches 3-0. Jules Bakunowicz (U14), Oliver Grantham (U16) and Ben Phillips (U18) were mainstays in all three group-stage encounters.
Topping the group meant the boys then had a semi-final on Saturday against the Netherlands, in which the winners would qualify for the main draw.
Spain-based Jules Bakunowicz partnered Andrew Dunn, who trains at SmashPadel Bicester, to win the opening (U14) match 6-4, 6-4. Then GB's U16 pair Oliver Grantham and Vincent Bakunowicz went down 6-4, 7-6, holding several set points in a lengthy second set.
One break in each set then saw Ben Phillips and Liam de la Mare lose the deciding U18 tie 6-4, 6-3 against a very strong last Dutch pair.
"The team and coaches are extremely grateful to the LTA for supporting our FIP Junior World Cup campaign," said newly-appointed National Junior Coach, Frankie Langan.
"It's been a massive learning curve for all the kids and we've come away with success against countries who have been doing this a lot longer than us. The boys won 10 matches out of 12 and just missed out by a couple of points to the Netherlands. Their efforts should not be understimated."
The GB girls were drawn in an extremely tough European qualifying group with Belgium, Germany and Denmark, the top two of which would go through to the main draw.
After losing 2-1 to Belgium in their opener on Friday, GB overcame Denmark by the same scoreline, then faced a winner-takes-all clash with the Germans.
Elizabeth Vellacott and Rosie Allen lost the U14 tie 6-0, 6-2, but star duo Rosie Quirk and Chloe de la Mare recorded a 100% record for the weekend by taking the second tie 6-2, 6-0.
In the U18 decider, Aimee Connolly and Heidi Ellis battled hard but went down 7-6, 6-3 to German pair Larissa Bieling and Luisa Hernandez.
LTA National Performance Pathway Manager, Libby Fletcher, said: "Aimee and Heidi performed beyond our expectations in that match. They defended incredibly well and lost out in a close tussle.
"The trip has been a huge success. We've shown all the nations we're ready to compete with them. It was a pretty new experience for everyone, but by losing narrowly to the two teams who did eventually qualify, and beating the Danish, our girls have shown we deserve to be here and we're on the right track."
As part of our ongoing commitment to developing the next generation of British talent, we're continuing to invest in the LTA Junior Pathway.
This includes the establishment of performance hubs to better support promising young players across the country as well as hosting two FIP Promises tournaments for the first time in Great Britain earlier this year, which provided international competition experience on home soil.
