British Tennis - Lawn Tennis Association

Week 8: Loughborough Tennis – Team Tennis National Open Women’s (Midlands)

Becky Scrivins, team captain for Loughborough Tennis, describes her team’s 10-2 win in the National Open Women’s (Midlands Group)…

We have had a good start to our season with two wins out of possible three so far. Following a comfortable 10-2 victory over Ashby Castle last week, as well as a strong win against Lady Bay, Loughborough were keen for another victory against Leicestershire LTC.

However with a few of our players unavailable a team change was needed for this away fixture and Josie Inverdale was brought in for her first match of the season. Jodie drove the team over to Leicestershire and they had little knowledge of what to expect from their opponents. On arrival at the club the team couldn’t help but notice the hurricane-like conditions that they were about to face!

The singles matches got underway just after 12pm on the artificial grass courts. This was an unfamiliar surface that our players had to get used to! Josie made a fantastic start to her season with a convincing 6-1, 6-2 victory.

Josie Inverdale on her way to a comfortable singles win

Zoe and Jodie also played brilliantly and won their matches 6-1, 6-0 and 6-3, 6-1 respectively. Playing at number 4 Julie had a tough opponent but rallied well to win her match 6-3, 6-4. 

Julie Blackwood serving

With all four singles wins in the bag, the team were very confident going into the doubles. Playing together for the first time Josie & Zoe fought well to win a closely contested first set 7-5. They improved their game in the second set which they won convincingly 6-1. In the final rubber of the day Jodie and Julie lost their opening set 6-4 but fought back to win the second set 6-2. Unfortunately they let the weather get the better of them and lost the third set tie-break 10-2.

View the rubber results from the match

Overall this was a superb performance by all of the team, despite the windy conditions! A 10-2 victory means that we are now in second place in the League with only two matches remaining. Much practice is in order for our next match against Edgbaston Priory who so far remain undefeated.

Final result: Loughborough Women 10 - 2 Leicestershire LTC

View the National Open Women’s Standings

Loughborough’s team for the day L-R Josie Inverdale, Julie Blackwood, Jodie Bratchell, Zoe Leach