Yorkshire pair Kyle Edmund and Eleanor Dean stayed on course for a remarkable tennis double for the county after winning their respective semi-finals at the AEGON British Junior National Championships.
Dewsbury-born Eleanor Dean cruised into the final of the 14 and under girls event after a straights set victory over Bristol’s Brigit Folland. The number two seed won 6-4, 6-1 to set up a mouth-watering final clash with top seed Katy Dunne tomorrow (Friday) at the West Hants club in Bournemouth. Dean, who grew up in Ossett, has yet to drop a set in these championships and will head into the final in confident mood. The 13-year-old said: “At the beginning, I wasn’t nervous but I felt like I was making unforced errors and I did a lot of double faults in the first game. Then I started to lose my confidence. But I seemed to get into my rhythm as the game went on and gradually got my confidence back. “I’m playing Katy Dunne in the final and she’s is a very good player. But I’ve just got to go out, do what I’ve being doing all week and hopefully I’ll get a shot at it.” Dean rounded off a great day by partnering Katie Boulter to victory in the girls 14&under doubles final.
Meanwhile Beverley’s Kyle Edmund, the top seed here, overcame a strong challenge from Milton Keynes’ Chris Pearce to make the boys 14 and under final with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) win.
He now plays number two seed Luke Bambridge in the final. Edmund, 14, said: “I got off to a bad start. I was a bit nervous and I wasn’t striking the ball as well as I would have wanted. But then I just started to put balls in court and he started to miss a bit more and that’s how I got back into the match. “I thought I had in earlier in the second set but he kept coming back at me and played really well on the match points. “Not having dropped a set so far is a positive, but I can’t really dwell on that too much. “Luke and I are good friend and we travel a lot together, so it should be an interesting match.”
The AEGON British Junior National Championships is the highest domestic accolade available to Britain’s most promising young players and past champions included the current men’s and women’s British number ones, Andy Murray and Anne Keothavong. Since 2006 there has been a 300% increase in the number of young people who play six or more matches a year, but this is a figure British Tennis is driving to increase even further in order to create more winners.
This is the first year that the prestigious competition has been supported by AEGON, a leading life assurance company. In September 2008, AEGON was announced as the first Lead Partner of British Tennis. AEGON backs the game at all levels, from grassroots programmes through to international events.