The HSBC Road to Wimbledon Chinese juniors trip makes its way on to Court 14 with Tim Henman and WJTI Head Coach Dan Bloxham running a coaching clinic.
2011 China road trip at Reeds School in Surrey © T.Lovelock
The All England Club, in collaboration with official banking partner to The Championships, HSBC, has been working to help promote tennis at grass roots across Great Britain by annually orchestrating the nation’s largest lawn tennis event, the Road to Wimbledon.
For 10 years, the HSBC Road to Wimbledon has given the opportunity for thousands of boys and girls to sample competitive tennis at their local clubs and schools with the chance to come to The All England Club for the national finals. Now they have decided to export its success to help grow the sport at the grass roots in China.
This week, four gifted Chinese junior tennis players are enjoying the trip of a lifetime, and are here on a five-day VIP trip, which began on Thursday in London at the state of the art Chiswick Riverside High Performance Centre, on the banks of the River Thames.
Today they were fine-tuning their skills at Reeds School Tennis Academy in the heart of Surrey, getting to see how things are done there and practising their ground strokes ready for a visit to Wimbledon on Middle Saturday. There they will join HSBC ambassador, Tim Henman, the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative kids and also the 2010 HSBC Road To Wimbledon winners, Christopher Morrow and Freya Christie, on the Court 14, to play tennis and watch The Championships.
The two boys, Hu Liu and Teng Ma, and girls, Zhuoma Gerong and Zhima Du, have been preparing their games with the Reeds School tennis academy players.
Ben Haran, the head coach at Reed, spoke about the Chinese visit. “It was really good hosting the Chinese boys and girls, who obviously have a lot of potential to become good tennis players, and with all the interest in Chinese tennis at present,” he said. “Our kids enjoyed training with the juniors.”
Tournament Director for HSBC Road to Wimbledon, Paul Hutchins, was also at Reeds overseeing the groundbreaking visit. He said: “The Chinese juniors are having a great experience over here visiting different tennis facilities. Going to Reeds and seeing one of the top British schools for tennis was a real eye-opener for the juniors and Chinese team leader. So far the trip has been a great success.”
Wimbledon looks forward to welcoming them on Saturday.
As part of the HSBC ‘Road to Wimbledon’ joint initiative between Wimbledon and HSBC to build on brand interest in China, Chinese juniors (2 boys/2 girls) and coaches have been invited to the 125th Championships to take part in the middle Saturday clinic with HSBC Ambassador Tim Henman and Club coach Dan Bloxham.
Plans are already being made for China to stage a ‘Road to Wimbledon’ event in the future.
Also discussions are taking place to look at bringing the Wimbledon junior event to India and Brazil for a similar tennis experience encouraging the next generation of tennis players culminating in a four-way international competition in 2013.
The HSBC Road To Wimbledon 14 & Under National Challenge: A True Wimbledon Experience. Featuring Tim Henman, Tournament Director Paul Hutchins, and the competitors of the 2010 National Finals.
2010 Champion Christopher Morrow with Tim Henman Stuart Grant and Philip Brook
Organisers Entry Form 2011 (PDF)
The HSBC Road To Wimbledon 14 & Under National Challenge, now in its tenth year, officially gets underway for the 2011 edition of the largest junior lawn tennis event in the UK.
The entry forms for schools and clubs who wish to host an event are now available for tournament organisers to download and complete, the organiser packs are ready to be sent out in February. Juniors eligible to play in the 2011 Road To Wimbledon Championships should get in touch with their local LTA County Tournament Organiser to find out when & where to play a Stage One club/school event. Visit www.lta.org.uk/In-Your-Area.
Once again, after The Championships, Wimbledon will re-open its cast iron gates inviting the best of Britain’s 14 & under school children who make it through their local Stage One competition, and qualify via the County Finals, to play at the home of the worlds premier tennis tournament.
It takes three stages of competitive tennis to determine who will be the next HSBC Road To Wimbledon Champion and it starts crucially at the local singles events at schools and tennis clubs across the country.
To help make this year bigger, and better, than before you are invited to organise a Stage 1 competition at your school, park, or club which must be completed before 31st May 2011.
If you are thinking of hosting a tournament for the first time it is an incredibly straight forward process, you will find all of the information you need to bring Wimbledon directly to your talented junior players here
“2011 will be our 10th anniversary and we are keen for as many clubs and schools as possible to enter the event to give more juniors an opportunity of getting competition experience and a chance to qualify to play at Wimbledon in the National Finals. Our online entry form for clubs and schools to enter is now available with a deadline for organisers who wish to hold an event of 31st January 2011.” -Tournament Director, Paul Hutchins
The 2010 champions Freya Christie of Nottinghamshire, and Christopher Morrow of Gloucestershire, enjoyed a fantastic week at the home of The Championships receiving the VIP Wimbledon experience along with all the other boy’s and girl’s that made it to the National Finals. The highlights of a magnificent week are captured in our match reports, daily blogs, player interviews, high quality videos and daily galleries.
As always the tournament is supported by its Ambassador, Tim Henman, who will again be making a special appearance at the finals to present the winners and finalists with their trophies.
Download our Organisers Entry Form 2011 (PDF)
Tournament Director Paul Hutchins writes about today
The day started with the Tim Henman and Dan Bloxham clinic and ended with a thrilling tie-break in the girls doubles that went down to the wire, and in between some really good tennis by oh so keen juniors.
Once again the clouds stayed far enough away but for a couple of brief showers the rain stayed away until after the finals had been completed.
The All England Club courts still looked in pristine condition even after we had played on them all week and it emphasised why Head Grounds man Eddie Seward has said that in 2012 despite a short time between the Championships and the Olympics the courts ‘will be fine and ready’ for HSBC Road To Wimbledon.
Tim and Dan hosted an action packed clinic for 30 juniors made up of the players who had not quite made the National Finals but reached the County Finals stages and others still here to enjoy Wimbledon having played the National Finals.
A video of the day was taken and will be coming out in a few weeks and competitors will receive a DVD of the event and the finals day activities.
The boy’s and girls’ singles were both won by the original top seeds Freya Christie of Nottinghamshire and Chris Morrow of Gloucestershire. Freya beating Daniella Silva, and Chris beating Giles Waterson.
The Consolation singles winners were Emma Hurst beating Bethany Eccles and Jonathan Tingey getting the better of Ryan Bates.
In the girls’ doubles Gabrielle Paul and Sarah Wray just won 12-10 in the third set tie break against Freya Christie and Corinne Blythe and in the boy’s doubles Andrew Atkinson and Ross Mackenzie triumphed over Lucas Taylor and Luke Simeone.
So a truly memorable week for everyone involved.
HSBC Head of Corporate Banking Stuart Grant paid tribute to all the parents and juniors who had played the event. Philip Brook the Vice Chairman of the All England Club shared his appreciation of the standard, enthusiasm and commitment of the competitors and how much the All England Club wish to support the event.
I asked James Marsalek to join the VIP presentation as the 2006 past winner and it was good to see him with Tim Henman, Julian Tatum and John Barrett also at the trophy presentations.
James is now a full time professional player and it was good for the juniors to know that as the 2009 National 18 & under Champion he was now going off to play in the Canadian and US Open event.
I also spoke of how good it was that another form player and past winner of the HSBC Road To Wimbledon Tom Farqharson had won the junior doubles event in the recent Wimbledon Championships with his partner and another great future prospect Liam Broady.
So I have come to the end of my blogs and have to say it was really enjoyable organising the event all year.
A terrific appreciation to the LTA for their support and all the county offices and county organisers who have helped and all the HSBC Road To Wimbledon club and school organisers who ran the nearly 1000 local tournaments at stage 1 of the journey that all the finalists have been involved in this week at Wimbledon.
It really is a ‘Road To Wimbledon’ and we will shortly sit down and plan improvements for 2011 with all the different people involved.
and finally……..
Well done to all the competitors who have played in the 2010 event. You were the ones that made it a success and continued success in your careers.
The HSBC Road To Wimbledon boy's singles champion
Christopher Morrow of Gloucestershire was crowned the 2010 HSBC Road To Wimbledon boy’s singles champion this afternoon after a 6-1, 6-4 grass court masterclass over Giles Waterson of Oxfordshire.
The number one seed raced away with the first set dropping just one game as he started the stronger controlling his own service games with a high percentage of powerful first serves, and then attacking Waterson’s second serve with blistering well timed returns forcing the Oxfordshire boy to retreat deep behind the baseline.
In the second set fourteen-year-old Waterson fought valiantly putting up much more resistance but his serve came undone in the third game of the second set, and that was just enough for the number one seed fluent in the art of grass court tennis, to hold on to despite facing break points himself in the second, and fourth games, of the second set.
After the trophy ceremony Christopher spoke about today’s win “It feels so good to be champion. I think the final was my best performance of the week, everything clicked. Giles is a really good. I’ve played him before in other tournaments. He upped his game in the second set making it really tough for me. Fortunately I managed to hold on to the early break of serve to see out the match.”
In the boy’s consolation draw final Bucks boy, Jonathan Tingey, 14, defeated Ryan Bates of Hampshire 6-4, 6-3.
The HSBC Road To Wimbledon girls' singles champion
Freya Christie, 12, became the 9th Road to Wimbledon girls’ singles champion at the All England Club today defeating Daniella Silva of Suffolk in a thrilling match 6-3, 5-7, 6-0.
At the start the number one seed from Nottinghamshire proved to be the stronger as she took the first two games using her powerful forehand to dictate the early baseline exchanges. However, Silva eventually found her range and fought back to take the next three games by outlasting Christie in the rallies to go ahead in the match for the first time.
But Christie came good towards the end of first set as she made fewer unforced errors to take it 6-3.
In the first six games of the second set Silva was overpowered by the Nottinghamshire 12 year old who went to within two points of the title when at 5-1 and 30-all, the Suffolk second seed began to out-think her opponent and keep her running from side to side forcing the top seed into making unforced errors and staging a remarkable turn around to win six games in a row taking the set 7-5.
The final set was all about the talented thirteen year old who responded immediately using her greater variety of weapons to run away with the HSBC Road To Wimbledon title taking the final set comfortably to love.
After receiving the girls’ singles trophy Freya said, ” It feels amazing. It was quite a long match and I was feeling the pressure out there. For the past three weeks I have been playing non-stop so I’m really tired. After dropping the second set I had to change my attitude and be a lot more positive and just go for it, doing that helped me win.”
In the girls’ consolation final Emma Hurst of Devon got the better of Somerset girl Bethany Eccles 6-2, 6-3.
Tournament Director Paul Hutchins writes about today
So many competitors have enjoyed themselves and we have been incredibly lucky with the weather and been on grass all week and played just a couple of hours indoors.
Great to see the ‘top brass’ at the semi-finals today. All England Club Chairman Tim Phillips, and the President, and Vice President of the LTA Derek Howarth, and Peter Bretherton, as well as John Barrett, one of the key originators of the event all showing great interest.
Locally all eyes were on Chloe Halliday who although losing in the semi-finals has performed so well this week. Chloe has so many Wimbledon credentials.
She began her tennis from her local Wimbledon school when head coach of the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative (WJTI) Dan Bloxham visited the school to promote the WJTI for local juniors to attend sessions at the All England Club.
The closeness to the WJTI has been there ever since. Chloe who lives in Wimbledon and goes to school in Wimbledon plays at West Side Tennis Club in Wimbledon Village under the coaching supervision of Alison Taylor the wife of former British Wimbledon semi-finalist Roger Taylor.
Quite a story in the making and a credit to the WJTI, and Dan Bloxham with his dedicated team of coaches working hard with the full support of the Club.
Daniella Silva, 14, who won through her school Road To Wimbledon competition from Culford School in Bury St Edmunds lives in Portugal and will play Freya Christie, 13, who beat Sarah Wray in probably the best match so far of the week. It was a pity someone had to lose.
And now lets look at the boy’s. Second seed in Lucus Taylor lost to a gutsy Giles Waterson who unbelievably did not drop a game in the club or county event to qualify for the finals here.
It will be a fascinating final on Saturday as Waterson play’s the first seed Chris Morrow from Gloucestershire who lost in the quarter final of the consolation event in 2009 who did incredibly well after dropping the first set today to turn things around against big serving Reuben Henry from Scotland.
The boy’s and girls’ consolation and doubles are also very important and all who made it through to the finals will be starting at 10.30 sharp on Saturday morning at the same time as the Tim Henman and Dan Bloxham clinic where 24 lucky boys and girls will take part in a fun training session.
The girl’s quarter-finals yesterday saw the top four seeds make it through to the semi-finals stage. Freya Christie, 12, the number one seed from Nottinghamshire, continued to use her powerful groundstrokes to notch up an immaculate 6-0, 6-0 victory over Megan Wright of Norfolk. She will face Kent fourth seed, Sarah Wray, in their first ever encounter for a place in the final. Wray is a young talent that also possesses a lot of power, and has a great single-handed backhand that helped her to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Cornish girl Athena Chrysanthou yesterday, so this match is sure to have a lot of exciting rallies.
In the bottom half of the draw Wimbledon girl Chloe Halliday, 13, who edged out Eilish Mackie of Cambridgeshire 7-5, 6-1 in the quarters goes head to head with fourteen-year-old second seed Daniella Silva from Suffolk. Silva also had an impressive 6-3, 6-0 win over Laura Sainsbury and her match against the left-handed third seed should be a high quality encounter.
Emily Kerr of Hampshire will meet Bethany Eccles of Somerset in the top half of the draw in the girls’ consolation semi-final. And Shropshire’s Harriet Jones will play Emma Hurst from Devon.
In the girls’ doubles Nottingham pair Corinne Blythe, and Freya Christie meet Chloe Halliday of Surrey, and Sezan Walker of Middlesex. Kent’s Gabrielle Paul and Sarah Wray will play the Leicestershire and Warwickshire pairing of Abigail Amos and Maria Pandiya.
