The Racquet Club of Philadelphia was pleased to host the U.S. Junior Doubles U19 Lieb Cup, U17 and U15 in conjunction with the National Parent Child. The field consisted of twelve juniors ranging from 14 to 18 years old, so the RC Proshop had every player in the U19 division where each player partnered with each other. The format was terrific for all players getting a huge amount of court time and match experience. The field consisted of seven Philadelphians (Spencer Yager, Jack Cassidy, Ben Sheridan, Jack Whitehouse, Asher Ricci, Michael Harrity and Reid Kleinman) two Tuxedo Parkers (Bob Wang and Dawson Chisholm) two Washingtonians (Wylie Courson and Owen Caputo) and one New Jersian Sebastian St- Laurent.
We started the event off bright and early on Saturday morning with a clinic with the focus of getting everyone to focus on racquet preparation and slowing down their swings. It was great to see all players especially newbies to game figuring out the swing. The round robin started at 9am and the match experience was essential for the beginners to get their feet wet in some match exposure. The top two players in each division came through to play in the final of the Lieb Cup. In Box 1 Spencer Yager and Bob Wang came through and Dawson Chisholm and Michael Harrity came through on Box 2. Wang & Chisholm familiar with each other looked like they were the team to beat, but Yager and Harrity played extremely well to take the final 6/3, 6/2. Harrity with a good squash and lawn tennis background showed great ability to get the ball over the net. All four players show great promise to be solid players. The Consolation Final had Asher Ricci & Owen Caputo scraping out a win over Ben Sheridan & Sebastian St Laurent.
The U17 match was a barn burner with much improvement from all four players, because of a huge amount of court time in the two days. Wylie Courson & Asher Ricci were much more consisted then on Saturday and squeaked out an 8-7 win over Owen Caputo & Sebastian St Laurent in the finals.
The U15 final was the last of the Day on Sunday and it was a nail bitter! It took three sets for Asher Ricci & Sebastian St Laurent to overtake Owen Caputo & Wylie Courson 6/0, 3/6, 6/1
Parent- Child was a four team round robin with the Jeff & Spencer Yager a bit too tough against the field winning all 3 of their round robin matches. Congratulations to Brad & Sebastian St Laurent for their finalist result. Fun weekend of tennis and great seeing a few new juniors out the courts!
