Asda Athletes

On Sunday we got back from two weeks in Chinese Taipei at the World Junior Championships. England sent a team of four boys and four girls and I was lucky enough to be selected to play doubles in the team event and doubles and mixed in the individual tournament.

In the closing stages of the team event we were playing for final places and Holly and I were last on when England were drawing 2-2 with Germany. It was up to us to win to gain a higher final position so we were under a lot of pressure. Luckily we performed well and won 23-21, 21-16!
In the individual event Rhys and I were very unlucky and drew the number one seeds from Indonesia in our first(and only!) match. We played really well – Rhys was amazing – and only lost on 3 sets 21-10, 18-21, 10-21.

In the doubles Holly and I beat a Canadian pair in the first round then lost to an Indonesian couple who went on to win the silver medal. We gave them a good game though so have some positives to take away from the event.

Playing at the World Juniors and visiting Taiwan was a brilliant experience but the jetlag takes a bit of getting over….

The weekend after we got back from the Isle of Man, it was the Wimbledon Under 19 – our first domestic tournament of the season and really important as it was being used to make the selection for the World Juniors at the end of October.

Holly and I played well, specially in the semi-final, and won the final in two sets. In the mixed doubles Rhys Walker and I were playing our first tournament together so we weren’t sure how things would go…We reached the semi where we met one of the top England couples and managed to beat them in a really hard but exciting match. This meant I would be playing my doubles partner Holly in the final! Unfortunately we were not able to match their experience but wee pleased to finish runners-up.

It was a really good start to the season and hopefully my results would be enought to get me to the Worlds!

After a weekend at home it was time to set off to another tournament,this time the Swiss Junior in Lausanne. I had been entered in all three events(yes, even singles!) so would hopefully be playing a few matches over the next couple of days.

Rhys and I were seeded 2nd in the mixed which came as a surprise with us being a new partnership. This meant we got a bye into the second round so we didn’t play until later on the Friday afternoon. After winning our first mixed game, I had a singles match. I lost to a French player who went on to win the tournament but was pleased with the way I played. Rhys and I then won our next match against a Turkish couple which took us to the quarter finals. A two set win over a French couple meant we faced more French in the semi and we won that match, again in two sets, to play a repeat of the Wimbledon final against Holly and Tom! This time we were determined to win but again they beat us in two sets – maybe next time…

Holly and I were seeded 2 in the women’s doubles and reached the semi-finals without dropping a set. We played a French pair in the semis and again won in two. This set us up for the final against the number 1 seeds from Turkey.They took the first set easily but we sorted ourselves out to take the second 22-20.We were behind in the third but managed to get back to 18-20 down before the Turksh girls won match point. This was a real disappointment as we had fought back really well but I came home with two silver medals from Europe and some really nice Swiss chocolates!

The season started with the Commonwealth Youth Games which took place in the Isle of Man. I was selected to play doubles and we reached the quarter finals before losing to the Sri Lankan pair who went on to win bronze.

We didn’t play our best but the English lads had some great results – my mixed partner Rhys won bronze in singles and Tom and Ryan got silver in doubles which was a really good result! Although disappointed with our performance, it was a brilliant competition and we got to socialise with players from lots of different countries.h1. Your title here…