A trophy-laden month for Team Bath MCTA Tennis on the ITF World Junior Tour concluded with more success in both the Middle East and Europe.
Joe Leather and Yusuke Tamaki, pictured with coach Rob Morgan, went one better than the previous week’s tournament in Bahrain as they won the boys’ doubles title at the Fujairah ITF Junior West Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
After battling through the opening two rounds via decisive third-set tie-breakers, Leather and Tamaki breezed to a 6-3 6-0 semi-final victory over Poland’s Karol Paluch and Ukraine’s Eric Vanshelboim before overcoming Nikolai Lorens of Poland and Hungary’s Peter Sallay 7-5 7-5 in a close-fought final.
Back in Finland, Amelia Bissett and partner Morgan Cross won the girls’ doubles for a second week in a row, this time at the TATS Open in Tampere.
They lived up to their billing as number one seeds by moving through the tournament without losing a set, going on to beat Russia’s Alisa Budanova and Mararita Ignatjeva from Latvia 7-5 6-4 in the final.
Ralph Allen School pupil Bissett, from Devizes, also reached the last four of the singles competition while Cross was a quarter-finalist.
On the senior circuit, Richard Gabb and Luke Johnson went mighty close to completing an unbeaten month in Israel as they reached a third-successive men’s doubles final on the Futures tour.
However, they were not quite able to match their trophy successes in Ashkelon and Kiryat Gat as they were edged out 7-6(4) 6-7(4) 10-6 in the Meitar final by top seeds Yannick Jankovits of France and Switzerland’s Luca Margaroli.
The all-emcompassing tennis programme at the University of Bath caters for players of all ages and abilities, from touring professionals to recreational players. Visit www.teambath.com/tennis for more information.
Lead photo shows (from left) Amelia Bissett and Morgan Cross with coach Mel South after their girls’ doubles title win in Finland.
Report courtesy of the Team Bath press office at Matchtight Ltd
