TENNIS
At the regional finals , our junior girls and junior boys finished third overall , showing a really good effort against some of the best tennis schools in the country .
A fantastic display of teamwork and superb individual performances
The school year started with a continued run of national cup success for the Years 8 and 9 girls . After finishing the summer season as county winners they went on to narrowly beat The Coopers ’ Company and Coborn School in September , followed by St Paul ’ s Girls in October to qualify for regional finals . The team of Serena Manca , Madeleine Brown , Annabel Nuijens , Allegra Cuomo and Ilse Russell-Jones were extremely positive going into their first match versus first seed Queenwood , who are always a force to be reckoned with . Youngest team member Serena put in an unbelievable performance playing at number one . She eventually lost 6-2 , but we have high hopes for her for the future . Madeleine battled hard at number two , narrowly losing 7-6 , and Annabel and Allegra played their hearts out at numbers three and four to lose 6-4 and 6-2 respectively . The Queenswood girls were outstanding in the doubles too . Clinical and tenacious , they cleaned up to leave the score 6-0 . However , the Sevenoaks girls showed their resilience and beat Culford 10-2 with three singles wins and two doubles wins to end the day on a high . The girls and the boys finished third overall at the regional finals , and the experience they had playing at this level will stand them in good stead as they move through the school .
As we entered the winter months the seniors competition was in full swing . The girls ’ team of Venetia Barker , Michelle Li , Christiane Gontarek and Sofia Melamed had a good run of success with wins over Benenden , St Mary ’ s Ascot and Bede ’ s , eventually losing out to a strong Eastbourne side . The boys ’ team of Anthony Dinh , Nicky Phillipson , Nic Clinton , Guilio Bianco and Ethan Phillipson beat Tonbridge in a shootout after the most incredible spell of play involving Anthony Dinh and Nic Clinton , to seal the victory in the local derby . Unfortunately , the boys lost out to Bede ’ s in a shootout in the next round which ended their cup run .
The season was of course cut short , but good news came in the Summer term as we heard Oscar Brown had signed for the University of Portland to pursue his ambition of playing US college tennis , after seven years of outstanding contribution to school tennis . While we celebrate such excellence , we are also delighted by the level of participation in tennis : this year over 100 pupils attended group coaching , 60 pupils had individual coaching and over 50 pupils took part in a team squad .
Charlotte Smith
SEVENOAKS SCHOOL 2019-2020 103