Back to list Back to list

#UniTennis Round-Up – Edition 11

10/08/2018
#UniTennis Round-Up – Edition 11

Welcome to your digest of British university tennis news. The latest edition of the #UniTennis update includes a celebration of success on the European university stage and round up all the rest of the action from a busy couple of weeks of summer tennis competition involving student-athletes from British universities.

University of Stirling Women Win GOLD at EUSA Games

Huge congratulations to University of Stirling women’s team who were crowned champions of European universities at the EUSA Games in Coimbra, Portugal. The Stirling team of Maia Lumsden, Ingrid Vojcinakova and, 2018 BUCS Individual Championships Singles winner, Natasha Fourouclas defeated the University of Bordeaux (France) to claim the title of best university tennis team in Europe!

In addition, the men’s team of Scott Macaulay and 2018 BUCS Individual Championships Doubles silver medallists Scott Duncan and Kieren Macarty managed a 5th-placed finish in a strong competition, overcoming the University of Porto in their final game to place top 5.

British University Student Team vs Harvard/Yale

A British University Student representative team recently played in a friendly match against a mixed Harvard/Yale team, hosted by Loughborough University. The British squad made up of 5 Loughborough University, 3 University of Bath and 2 University of Exeter performance players were split into men’s and women’s teams for some competitive matches. Overall, the men’s side claimed a 4-3 victory with the women falling 2-4 against the American-representative team.

ITF Pro Tour Round-Up

University of Stirling athletes have been grinding hard on the ITF Pro Circuit this summer. University no. 1 and GB university student team member Maia Lumsden has been competing most recently at Woking and Chiswick $25K-level events. Her standout performance was reaching the last 16 in Woking, defeated by a player in the top 250 in the world, as Maia continues to fight to reach what would be a career high ranking inside the world’s top 400 tennis players. Men’s scholar and GB student teammate to Maia, Scott Duncan has also had success on the doubles court this summer. Most recently, Scott reached the semi-final of the Futures-level Irish Open event, partnered by Durham University alumni Jonny Binding; missing out on a final berth in the closest of match tiebreaks [10-8] against the eventual winners.

On the other side of the draw of the same doubles event in Ireland was University of Bath scholar and BUCS Individual Championships 2018 doubles gold medallist Ben Jones, who went one better than Duncan at the Open to reach the final, his first at Futures level. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be for Ben and his British partner who lost out in two tight sets to a more experienced team but still an excellent achievement for the 20-year-old Bath fresher.

Also great to see University of Sussex and BUCS Individual Championships singles runner-up Isaac Stoute competing hard on the Futures tour around the world. Isaac reached two consecutive singles quarterfinals in Malaysia and Indonesia to help achieve a career high world ranking inside the ATP top 850, at 847.

#UniTennis at County Week

There were so many #unitennis players past and present representing their local County teams during a hectic week of high level County Cup competition. Congratulations to all involved helping their respective county teams at all levels from Group 1 to 7!

It was a week of firsts for Ben Jones as, just before his first Futures doubles final, he helped his county side, Suffolk, to their first ever Group 1 County Cup tennis title – the highest level of domestic team tennis competition in the UK. In the Ladies Division 1 competition in Devon, Loughborough University 1st teamers Olivia Berry and Katie Morris represented an unbeaten Surrey team and helped them to claim the title of national champions and the Group 1 County Cup trophy!

British University Players on the British Tour

There has been plenty of #unitennis player representation on the British Tour this summer. Standout performances include Ben Jones (University of Bath) claiming the title on the grass at Tunbridge Wells in mid-July, Paul Johnson and Jordan Reed-Thomas (both Leeds Beckett) reaching the quarterfinals in Ilkley and Rob Leck (University of Stirling) making the quarterfinals at Newcastle.

Jobs

The University of Hertfordshire are recruiting a University Tennis Co-Ordinator who will be responsible for delivering the tennis programme and to support the development of a clear strategy for Tennis at Hertfordshire which combines all elements of the project aims from Performance, Workforce Development, Coaching and Participation.For more information please contact Tom Lambert, Director of Tennis (tomlambert.tenniscoaching@hotmail.com).

To apply, please send a CV and covering letter to tomlambert.tenniscoaching@hotmail.com by the closing date of Friday 24 August 2018.