NICO ROBINSON (pictured) pulled off the only Guernsey win in the four age group tennis finals held at Les Ormes at the weekend, but all were hotly contested and the Sarnian competitors performed well.
The AIB Grand Prix finalists had all earned their place against their top Jersey counterpart by competing in all the major junior Channel Island events during the year, accumulating points for entering and more points based on how far into each draw they got.
The AIB finals are held on the show courts set out for the professional ATP challenger event finals held at Les Ormes later the same day.
The matches were played with ball boys, umpires and linesmen and the players were introduced on court to the audience by Hugh Raymond, CI tennis manager.
First on court on Saturday morning was Max Galins in the 10-and-under boys’ final against Jake Evans of Jersey.
Both boys suffered from early match nerves due to the occasion of being on a show court, but Evans settled more quickly and took the opening set 5-3.
In the second, the match really got competitive and it was Galins who took the game to his opponent, constructing some great points and playing the more aggressive tennis.
He took the set 5-4 and the decider was played as a 10-point tiebreak.
Galins continued with many attacking forehands, but Evans defended well, getting the ball back in play and eventually winning 10-8 on points after an untimely double fault from Galins.
The Guernsey boy was complimented by many onlookers on his playing style and attitude and is sure to do well now that he is moving away from the lighter, slower green ball and on to the normal weight yellow ball.
On an adjoining show court, Jack Oldfield was battling out the under-14 boys’ final against Stuart Parker, also an accomplished player a year older than the Sarnian whom Oldfield has yet to beat.
The Guernsey boy started well and came out of the blocks so fast and so aggressive that Parker was taken by surprise.
Oldfield led 5-1, 40-love, before, incredibly, Parker clawed his way back and scraped the first set 7-5.
A deflated Oldfield tried to make a new start in the second set but never really got going and Parker again came out on top 6-0.
Next on was Milly Wood, who played Jersey’s Eleanor Johnson in the 10-and-under girls’ final.
Wood struggled to find her rhythm early on and had to ask the umpire to call the trainer on to court after the second game to dress a cut on her arm.
Many of the games were close, but Johnson managed to produce the better shots on game points resulting in a 4-1 win.
The second set was closer and Wood hit some deep shots troubling Johnson, but did not serve as consistently, losing the second 2-4.
Sunday morning ahead of the men’s $50,000 final and women’s $10,000 final, Robinson took on George Dupays of Jersey in the under-18 boys’ final.
Robinson dominated from the start using his big serve to great advantage in the opening game.
Dupays was not allowed to settle on his serve either as the Sarnian attacked him immediately from his return of serve and tried to use any shorter balls to advance to the net and volley.
Robinson ran out a comfortable winner 6-1, 6-0.
All the finalists then got to watch a fantastic men’s final between Jarkko Nieminen from Finland and Stephane Robert of France – both men ranked just outside the top 100 in the world.
The match was competitive but played with the greatest respect for their opponent, each applauding each other’s shots – surely a good thing for juniors to see and pick up on.
All the juniors were presented with their prizes at the same ceremony as the pros – a day they will always remember and be inspired by.
Article posted on 20th November, 2009 - 2.29pm
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