Photos by Michael Loveder

The Mark Bates Ltd U10-13 National Championships Day One put on a great show for all involved at the Brentwood Centre in Essex. On the first day of action, the U11 and U13 events took place with six titles won across both singles and doubles events.

Under-11 Boys’ Singles

The group stages didn’t turn out any major surprises, although number one seed Jayden Chen did have a scare as he lost to number 18 seed Vihaan Mittal meaning he finished runner up in Group 1 and had to proceed to the knockouts via the preliminary round.

Despite beating Liam Higgins in the preliminary round, the top seed then fell in the Round of 16 to number two seed Lusio Wen.

Throughout the rest of the event, Vihaan Mittal’s thunderous run was ended in the Semi Finals to Thomas Ellis, while Lusio Wen saw off Nicholas Andrei and before succumbing to 2024 U10 National Champion Saisurya Prasanna Kumar in the semi finals.

In the final, Thomas Ellis looked fierce as he built up and early lead, and with it, the opening set 11-9. Prasanna Kumar responded in kind by building leads of his own, and taking the next two 11-6, 11-5. A grandstand finish was set up as Ellis took the fourth 11-4. The final set resulted in Prasanna Kumar storming to an 11-3 victory in the fifth to secure the U11 National title.

Under-11 Girls’ Singles

It was the top two seeds Cindy Xiao and Isabella Xiao Xu who took the first spots in the Semi Finals, while Bethany Yang and Mindy Gao had to play one more match each to secure their spot in the last four, defeating Sakinah Damji and Akira Bennatraj respectively.

In the final four, Isabella Xiao Xu won in three against Mindy Gao, while Cindy Xiao worked for her spot in the final after overcoming Bethany Yang 3-1.

In the final, Isabella Xiao Xu took the opening set before Cindy Xiao responded by winning back to back sets before a nervy ending to the match. While on Championship point, Xiao Xu worked her way back onto level terms, but it wasn’t quite enough as Cindy Xiao got over the line to claim the overall title 3-1 and add to her U10 Girls’ Singles title from last year.

Under-13 Boys’ Singles

The Under-13 Boys’ event saw a large field of talent playing over nine groups resulting in a Round of 16 knockout, preceded by two Preliminary matches for four runners-up to battle it out to secure their fate in the main draw. In the first prelim, 12th seed Joshua Freeman knocked out 9th seed Li Hao Chen, while Ben Willis defeated Taha Shamakh.

In the Round of 16, Zihan Lin saw off Zaid Aldilimi to progress to the quarter finals where his journey would end at the hands of top seed Dimitar Dimitrov 3-1. Rishaan Sawant, Sinan Surensoy and Aaron Wong completed the semi final line up. At this stage, Sawant and Dimitrov played out an a very long lasting battle that went all the way to final set. Dimitrov used all his resolve and ultimately grabbed his place in the final after winning the fifth 11-1. Elsewhere, Surensoy lost his opener against seventh seed Wong, but ultimately progressed in four.

The final was a cagey affair at the start, but Dimitrov seemed determined to claim the U13 title to add to his 2024 U12 National Champion status, in a final he won against Surensoy. Dimitrov claimed the opening set, but then the pendulum swung in Surensoy’s favour, as he claimed the three remaining sets (9, 5, 8) he needed to call himself the U13 National Champion at his final chance of asking.

Under-13 Girls’ Singles

The Under-13 Girls’ Singles consisted of four groups, where all winners and runners up progressed from the group stage. The two top ranked players from each group advanced, with the exception to Grace Liu, who progressed as the third ranked player (and 9th overall seed) from Group 1.

During the quarter finals, Hannah Saunders and Amber Lemmon took 3-0 victories, whiles Serene Rahmani-Walentynska and Maisha Patel both took 3-1 victories as the final four was confirmed. Here, the top two seeds in Hannah Saunders and Amber Lemmon both stormed through their respective opponents 3-0 before facing off against each other in the final.

With neither player dropping a single set throughout the knockout stages so far, something was going to give. After sharing the opening sets one a piece, it was Lemmon who turned the screw to clinch the title by claiming the remaining two sets (9, 7) to avenge her defeat from the 2023 U11 Girls Singles Final, which featured the same athletes, but a different result.

Under-13 Boys’ Doubles

With no group stages in the doubles events, the knockouts got under way starting with a Round of 16. Li Hao Chen and Jayden Chen made a surge all the way through to the semi finals, where they would meet Rishaan Sawant and Dimitar Dimitrov, who reached the final four in a canter seeing all previous opposition off 3-0. It was Sawant and Dimitrov who prevailed in the end, maintaining their perfect record, as they defeated the Archway pair with another 3-0 scoreline

In the other half of the draw, Lewis Wu and Zihan Lin also reached the semis without dropping a set, while their eventual opponents, Zaid Aldilimi and Sinan Surensoy had the same record as they met. The U12 Boys Doubles Champions from last year showed that they still have it, as Aldilimi and Surensoy secured their golden ticket to the final after defeating another Archway pairing, 3-1.

The final couldn’t have been much closer, with both pairs splitting 12-10 sets in the opening two. The following two sets were then split 11-9, with neither pair looking to relinquish their ambitions of calling themselves champions. In the end, some great teamwork secured an 11-4 final set result to hand the title to a seemingly unstoppable pair in Zaid Aldilimi and Sinan Surensoy.

Under-13 Girls’ Doubles

The U13 Girls’ Doubles started at the quarter final stage, with eight pairs battling it out to become champions.

Both the U11 and U13 Champions, Cindy Xiao and Amber Lemmon, teamed up march towards their second trophy of the day, and nobody could stop them as they saw off Ruby Gandi Bamidele and Alexia-Bianca Ciobanica in the quarters, followed by Phoebe O’Brien and Maisha Patel in the semis, both with 3-0 scores.

The bottom half of the draw had Assil Sarri and Serene Rahmani-Walentynska navigate their way to the final by defeating Isabelle Bradly and Amelia Rothwell 3-0, before overcoming Hannah Saunders and Grace Liu in a thrilling match that ended 3-2, with three of the sets ending 11-9 or higher, including the decider.

The final was London Academy vs Archway, and it was the side from London, in Sarri and Rahmani-Walentynska who drew first, by taking the opening sets 11-6, 11-8. The comeback looked unlikely at first, but Lemmon and Xiao persisted and clawed their way back into the match to set up a decider. Although it could have gone either way, a terrific comeback was complete, as the Archway athletes won the match, and with it, the National title.

Day two of the Championships will see the Under-10 and Under-12 National Champions claim their titles.