Ulster Junior Championships 2008

After a couple of very wet days at the end of the week, the finals of the Tesco Ulster Junior Open 2008 were played without any sign of rain. Alan Gleeson stole the show on finals day when he went one stage further than last year in the Under 16s event by beating Angus Lloyd in the final with the loss of only one game and the loss of only six games in total in the Under 16s event. Alan then went on to put in a measured and mature performance to out class the defending champion Neil Stewart in the Under 18 boys singles final.

On the girls side Susannah Hughes-Jordan lifted the Under 18 girls title by defeating Katherine Mills in the final which saw 2 unseeded players reaching the final of the Under 18s for the 1st time since we can remember! Katie Morris was the only player this year who was involved in all 4 finals on Saturday. She started by defeating Aisling Towey 6-0 6-1 in the Under 14 girls – where Katie lost fewer games than Alan did in the Under 16 boys losing only 4 games altogether. She then lost in the final of the Under 16 girls to the top seed Elizabeth Murphy 6-3 7-6 before once again facing Elizabeth in the Under 18 girls final. Katie along with partner Shannon Andrews lost a tight 3 set encounter to top seeds elizabeth and Lynsey McCullough. Finally Katie found herself up against Elizabeth for the 3rd time on Saturday when she teamed up with Ross Campbell to beat Elizabeth Murphy and Alex Fowler in the Under 15 Mixed doubles.

The Under 14 boys final saw a tight 3 set match between the top 2 seeds and training partners Ross Campbell and Peter Bothwell. Ross came through as the eventual winner 2-6 7-5 6-1 to go 1 step further in the Under 14s than he did last year.The Under 12 boys and girls events were won by the top seeds in each event Sam Bothwell and Karola Bejenaru respectively. They both beat the 2nd seed in the draw with Sam coming through 6-4 6-3 against Michael Clarkson and Karola overcoming Kate Hennessy 6-3 6-2.

Off the court the usual entertainment took place with the Tesco Tiebreak tournament being replaced by a 1 point tournament due to bad weather. Some 80 people attended the 2nd Tesco tournament dinner after the presentation on Saturday night.

We hope that you all enjoyed this year’s tournament and we will look forward to seeing you all again next year. Many thanks to all the people who made the tournament such a suicess – to the sponsors Tesco for their generous sponsorship for the 2nd year, to the Boat Club members and staff and to Windsor for the use of their courts as well as everyone else who helped out during the week.

For a full rundown of the Tesco Ulster Junior Open Results please click here