Ellesmere Successfully Defends National Tennis Titles

Ellesmere successfully defended the Girls and Mixed titles at the AEGON Team Tennis Schools Finals at the Bolton Arena. Ellesmere qualified for the Final with three victories in the round robin stage where they upset #2 seeds Bedford Girls' School.

Ellesmere's opponents in the Girls Final were top seeds Peter Symonds College from Winchester who came through Girls Group A. Ellesmere College in Group B started both matches strongly and ultimately claimed both doubles matches for an early 4-0 lead. Peter Symonds College fought hard in the opening singles but Ellesmere held strong, with Julie Schuster coming through 7-6 (5) in the deciding match at Number 4 singles to earn the title for Ellesmere.

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The Boys competition provided some of the closest matches ever seen at the Senior Students Finals with 10 out of the 12 group matches ending in scores of 7-6 or 8-4. Ellesmere opened Group B with 10-2 victories over Bede's School and Exeter College respectively. Ellesmere then faced defending champions Hampton School from London. Ellesmere claimed key wins at Number 4, 3 and then 2 singles to win the match and in turn book a meeting with Rugby School in the final.

As with the case in the group stages, the Boys Final was closely contested. The two teams split the doubles matches before Rugby raced in to a 6-2 lead with wins at Number 3 and 4 singles. However, Ellesmere battled back strongly at Number 1 and 2 singles to force a match tie-break shootout to decide the title. Rugby School used their experience and confidence gained from three previous shootout victories to take the match tie-break shootout and the 2014 Senior Students Boys title.

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After excellent performances in the Girls and Boys competition, a confident Ellesmere got off to a very strong start and never looked back as they raced through Mixed Group B with 3 wins with the loss of just one match. Awaiting Ellesmere in the final was Strathallan School from Scotland. Defending champions Ellesmere got off to a strong start and used their experience from recent finals to stamp their authority on each match, winning the final 8 - 0.

Stephen Welti, Senior Performance Coach at Ellesmere College, commented "I couldn't be more proud of how the teams performed, the girls who played in both the girls and mixed events and the boys, of course, who secured their place in the final for the first time and narrowly missed out. There were a number of shootouts that made it exciting for everyone involved."

The Senior Students competition is part of the AEGON Team Tennis Schools series and is open only to students in Years 11-13 with a maximum rating of 7.1 when entries close in September. All teams attending the Finals won a round robin league in the Autumn term and qualified through regional knockout rounds in January and February.

21st March 2014  Back to News