Mixed Doubles Tennis Team Reach Final of National Competition

Pupils from the Schools Tennis Academy have been celebrating after their best ever showing at the Senior Students National Finals at the Bolton Arena last weekend.

The Girls team were faced with a baptism of fire in the first of their three matches, coming up against the top seeds and eventual champions from Culford School.  However they came agonisingly close to a huge upset before eventually going down in a match tie break after the scores were tied at 3-3.  The team recovered well from this disappointment, recording convincing victories against Benenden and Peter Symonds College to secure third place overall in the eight team event.

Two Year 11 pupils, Joanne Bowen and Christian Cieslik played alongside Patricia Lieberoth-Leden, Year 12 and James Joule, Year 13 in the Mixed Doubles Team. They played very well and qualified for the final thanks to excellent performances against Boston Grammar Schools and Greenhead College.  However despite a battling display, the effects of having played fourteen sets in little more than two days eventually took their toll. In the final, the quartet slipped to a narrow defeat against Queen Marys College.

Academy Director Nikki Hoy was delighted with her teams.  We came here last year and performed creditably, but it is a measure of how far the Tennis Academy has progressed in the last twelve months that this year we were extremely close to being champions in two of the three competitions.  I am very proud of all of them.

1st April 2010  Back to News