Thursday featured two rounds of highly competitive singles in the main draw and consolation draw. For those who won their first match they were into the quarter-finals and would later do battle for a place in the last four.
It was the number one seed in the boys’ singles, Piers Foley, that became the first major casualty of the day losing to unseeded Barnaby Smith of Buckinghamshire, who also defeated seventh ranked Jack Burkill to reach the semi-finals.
Luke Hammond and James Davis were the only two players to have reached the semi-finals without dropping sets making the third and fourth seeds the ones to beat, as they are showing great grass court form and elevate themselves to serious contenders for reaching the final.
Lucas Percy of Kent completes the final four after overcoming Jamie Oakes in a tense three setter and then defeating unseedewd Hampshire boy William Coward 6-2, 6-2.
The girls top four seeds continued their ascent to the latter stages, top seed Emily Arbuthnott eased to the semi-finals and will now face fourth seed Sophia Haine, while second seed Holly Hutchinson will meet Holly Horsfall the third seed of Yorkshire for a place in Saturday’s final.
All the competitors today have played incredible tennis this week on the Roehampton grass at HSBC Road to Wimbledon. With the singles and doubles trophies within sight for those still left we now approach the business end of HSBC Road to Wimbledon 2012.
