Last week, five players representing Exeter Golf and Country Club took to the hallowed courts of Wimbledon in the national finals of the Play Your Way to Wimbledon tournament.
The event begins at club level before progressing to county/regional competitions with the winners of each event moving on to the next stage.
This has traditionally been a junior event but this year saw the introduction of two new pathways, including the Adult Doubles (19+).
The first player in action was Amelia Badavi who qualified for the girls 14U singles. Amelia had also impressively qualified in the 18U doubles but had to pick one event for the finals. Amelia won her final match of the group stage 6-4 6-1 but a close defeat in the second match meant that she just missed out on qualifying for the knockout stages.
Phil Marsh and Tom Slack qualified for the men’s doubles and faced two tough matches in their round robin group. Their second match was a closer affair with both Tom and Phil acquitting themselves well in a 6-4 6-2 loss.
The highlight of the week was the success of Emily Staddon and Nicola Maddox in the ladies doubles. They comfortably came through their group winning 6-0 6-1 and then 6-1 6-2. Their semi-final was an incredibly close contest. Having lost the opening set 7-5, they rallied to take the second set 6-3 before prevailing in the deciding championship tie-break 10-4.
They came up just short in the final but can be incredibly proud at becoming runners-up at Wimbledon.
There will be more opportunities next year for 14U singles players along with 18U boys/girls and men’s/ladies doubles players to follow the same path and qualify for the National Finals at Wimbledon.
