The Durham & Cleveland county finals of the HSBC Road to Wimbledon 14 & Under Challenge were held over the weekend of 3rd and 4th July at the Sunderland Tennis Centre. The mouthwatering prize for winning this event is to play in the National finals of the competition at the All England Club. Players had qualified for the county finals by coming through their club events. The competition is open to all clubs, so if your club didn't enter this year make sure they do next year as you could be missing out on this opportunity of a lifetime to play on the grass courts of Wimbledon!
 
The players competed in round robin groups on Saturday giving everyone at least two matches. The group winners were Ryan Bainbridge (Wearside Esporta), Thomas Hollingworth (Saltburn TC), Joseph Mason (Eldon Grove TC) and Paolo Preston (Boldon LTC) in the boys event. The girls event had 6 players so both the winners and runners up of each group went through and they were Laura Wright (Durham Archery), Yasmin Tanfield (Tennis World), Emma Farrar (Yarm TC) and Elizabeth Bradley (Durham Archery LTC). The semi finals and finals were held on Sunday producing some closely fought matches. In the boys event Ryan overcame Paolo 6-1, 6-0 with Paolo putting in a creditable performance to have got through to this stage at the age of 11. In the other semi final Joseph emerged victorious against Tom in a very long and tense match! The score was 6-3, 7-6. In the girls event Laura was up against her club mate Elizabeth and came through 6-1, 6-0. The other semi final was between Yasmin and Emma and provided another tense match for those watching, particularly their families! The match went down to a match tiebreak in the third and the final score was a win to Yasmin 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (7).
We were joined by Helen Turnbull representing HSBC, the sponsor, for the finals who was very impressed by the standard of play. Both finals were closely fought with Ryan, who was runner up last year, coming through 6-2, 6-0 against Joseph and Yasmin was the winner against Laura 6-1, 6-4.
 
Trophies were presented to the winners and runners up by Helen Turnbull (HSBC) and all players who had taken part over the weekend received a goody bag from HSBC containing a T-shirt and cap (but sadly no money!) and a certificate. Our thanks go to Helen for attending the event and doing the presentation and also to Bob Stone for refereeing the event.
 
Congratulations to Ryan and Yasmin who will now go to play at the All England Club in August! Hopefully it will be an unforgettable experience for them. Fingers crossed too for Joseph and Laura as they may yet get called upon to play as 20 places are allocated to the boys and girls best rated runners up.