Georgia Toosey and Martha Raitt have secured their respective places in the World Junior Girls Championship semi-finals, after both won through their quarter-finals at Seacourt on Thursday in straight sets.
The first match of the morning — and the third of the competition — was the girl’s quarter-final between Queens Club’s Isabella Wylie and the Royal Tennis Court’s Martha Raitt. Raitt took control of the match early with her wide variety of serves, immediately catching Wylie out on the backfoot. She quickly established a two-game lead, before Wylie started to play into the game a little better. Even so, Raitt’s volleys were clean and crisp, resulting in several winners low over the net. Though Wylie was able to find chases, Raitt’s vice-grip on points from the service end were enough to see her through the first set. Early in the second, Wylie stretched out for a big forehand, with the ball hitting the frame and snapping the head clean off her racket handle. She stood for a moment in shock, while the crowd could see the amusing side. Switching to a new bat, she went toe-to-toe with Raitt for the next few games, before Raitt was able to stretch out a lead again. She finished the match with a nick-railroad, moving on to play Riya Bharwad in the semi-finals.
The other quarter-final match in the morning was between the Wellington pair of Zoe Neville and Georgia Toosey. With Neville playing several bands above her age category, challenging the older, taller and stronger Toosey was always going to be a tough ask. Still, she was putting away the slower balls well and earning several winners with her double handed top-spin backhand. Toosey kept the pressure on with her railroads, keeping the pace of the ball high to keep troubling Neville. Toosey never let up, easily securing the first set before Neville mustered some resistance for the second. Neville battled to 3-all before Toosey started broke away once again, reaching match point at 5/3. Neville calmly batted it away with a ball onto the base of the tambour. Neville had a point to force a deciding game, but Toosey held her nerve, securing her progression to the semi-finals to play first seed Katherine Carney.
Friday will see the conclusion of the plate draws for the boys and girls championships, with the main draw resuming on Saturday with all four semi-finals. The tournament concludes on Sunday.
Match results:
10:15 AM: Martha Raitt def Isabella Wylie 6/2 6/2
11:30 AM: Zoe Neville lost to Georgia Toosey 0/6 4/6
Order of play for Saturday:
10:00 AM: Katherine Carney (1) vs Georgia Toosey
12:00 PM: Max Warner (1) vs Jonah Serotta (4)
2:00 PM: Martha Raitt vs Riya Bharwad (2)
4:00 PM: Archie Watson (5) vs Algernon Nottingham (2)