The Great Britain 12U girls team clinched the Tennis Europe Winter Cup title this weekend at the Silksworth Community Pool, Tennis & Wellness Centre in Sunderland.
Great Britain – who won the last edition of the 12U tournament back in 2020 – retained the title four years later with a 2-1 victory over Ukraine in the final.
Looking back on their title-winning weekend, Team Captain and LTA National Age Group Coach Luke Milligan said: “From a GB perspective, the girls this week have been amazing. With events like this, it often comes down to the doubles and our girls have been amazing in doubles this week.
“We’ve had a really good balance of the matches being super competitive but also played in great spirits, which is exactly what you want out of the event.”
The British team – including Naina Kapoor, Dasha Jones and Sophia Cuninghame – were able capitalised on automatic qualification for the finals as the LTA played host to Europe’s largest indoor team tennis event.
The squad came through the quarter and semi-finals with 2-1 victories against one of the favourites, Czech Republic, and Slovakia to set up a final against the 2015 champions.
Kapoor opened the final with an impressive 7-6(5), 7-5 win over Anna Kuznetsova – putting the British side just one win away from the title.
However, the Ukranian team came back to force a doubles decider after Mariia Kocherzhenko beat Jones 6-2, 6-4.
Cuninghame and Jones came into the decisive match full of confidence having won both of their previous doubles contests in Sunderland.
The duo went on to make it three wins out of three, clinching the title for GB with a championship tie-break victory over Kocherzhenko and Kuznetsova 6-2, 5-7, 10-6.
The GB boys team were also competing in the finals this weekend. Despite losing their quarter-final against Switzerland, the team – led by Frederick Fabricius, Kai Max Hodkinson and Oskar Laskowski – beat Czech Republic and Netherlands to finish fifth.