Ryde player Rohit Patel is in the under-12s semi-finals. Picture by Jennifer Burton.
TENNIS
THE IW’s young tennis stars have been pitting their skills against plenty of mainland talent this week for Ryde Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club’s (RLTCC) annual junior open tennis tournament, sponsored by Sporties and the IW County Press.
At the time of going to press, the six-day tournament was at the half way stage, with the semi-finals across the age groups set to take place.
In the under-12s singles, Hertfordshire’s Jonathan Lankester is dominating, and will meet RLTCC’s Rohit Patel in the first semi-final. The second will be between Alex Breach (Ventnor) and Simon Gray (Harbour Club).
The semi-finalists for the under-14s girls’ singles, with the largest entry for many years, have yet to be decided but by Wednesday the two groups were being led by Sian Perry (Mead) and Leah Edwards (RLTCC).
In a strong field of 16 players, the four seeds for the under-14s boys have all progressed to the semi-finals.
In the first, Jadon Buckeridge (RLTCC) will play Robert Lankester (Herts) and in the second, Taliesin Boswell (Wrexham) will meet Oliver Kenwood (Stourbridge) playing in his first tournament on the Island.
The four seeds in the under-16s boys’ singles Buckeridge, Boswell, Ben Urquhart (Mead) and David Pearce (Ventnor) are all strongly placed to progress through to Friday’s semi-finals as is Jack Stapeley (Ventnor) who remains undefeated in his round robin group.
In the under-18s boys’ singles, Harry Steed (RLTCC) is unbeaten with both David Pearce and Dan Ashworth (Portsmouth ITI) having both only lost one match in the round robin event.
The finals will be held from 1.30pm tomorrow (Saturday). A full report will be in next week’s County Press.
• More pictures in the Friday, August 3, County Press