9&U Girls County Cup 2026

Bucks Tennis 9&Under County Cup Report March 1st 2026

Team: Sadhvi Venkat, Leona Murga, Sara Mahmud, Tattie Kertesz and Isha Mulay

Captains: Gavin Fowell and Anthony Heald

The players were thrilled that we were travelling to Oxstalls Indoor Tennis Centre in Gloucester, a six-court indoor tennis venue, with sports park facilities. Our team consisted of five players; Sadhvi, Leona, Sara, Tattie and Isha. Our opponents for the day were Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Surrey. 

The trip began on Saturday with an overnight stay in a hotel, which the girls were really excited about. We headed out for some team bonding with players, parents and family members. It had a real team feel, eating at Pizza Express.  

Sunday the day of the County Cup! After a nice team breakfast, we headed to the venue arriving at 9.15am for the captains’ meeting. With players and parents arriving at 9.30am for a 30 mins warm up and a reminder of Bucks Tennis values of humility, teamwork, and resilience.

Our first match was against Surrey, where numbers 3 and 4 were out first. Sara played her first match for Buckinghamshire at 3 against Sienna Mander. This was a really tight contest with very little between the two girls. The defensive skills of Sara up against a more attacking Sienna, with Sienna eventually taking the match 4-3(4). Isha played at 4 against Kelly Bennett. This was one way traffic, with Isha overpowering her opponent; resulting in a 4-1 win.

1s and 2s out next with Sadhvi playing at 1, up against Rani Benerjee. This match was again tight with very few differences between the players. Sadhvi showed good fighting spirit in the game. The end result being 4-2 to Rani Benerjee. Leona playing Evie Maclagan at 2. This was a tough task for Leona as Evie was one of the standout players of the day, with huge power, dominating the match 4-0. Leona’s attitude was excellent, she never gave up and showed great reslience.

At this point we were 3-1 down heading into the doubles. At 1 Leona and Sadhvi played some super doubles together against Rani and Leila, showing some great net play and team work. However, they came out just short, losing 4-2. Sara and Tattie had the tough task of playing against Evie and Sienna. Evie again taking centre stage with her power, made it very difficult for our girls. This was a 4-1 loss. Overall tie 5-1 to Surrey. However, this felt much tighter than the score line suggested and could have easily been us that won.

Next up was Gloucestershire, where Sara and Isha were out again first in the singles. This time playing against Nina Lormor and Ada Whittingham. Isha very similar to her last match showed some fantastic tennis, playing her a-game and her power was too much for the opponent resulting in a win 4-1. Sara was involved in another tight match, with the score at 2-2, a tight call from the opponent did seem to affect the match and points after, going on to lose 2-4. This is another match that could have gone either way, though it did not fall our way on the day. Well played Sara.

Sadhvi and Leona out again at 1 and 2 singles playing against Lilia Chatterton and Emma Lin. Sadhvi’s all court game demonstrated good attacking skills and defensive skills when needed, resulting in winning 4-2. Leona’s patience was being tested in this match, with Emma putting ball after ball in and waiting for Leonas errors. At times Leona hit in some wonderful winning shots, but also made some errors at crucial points within the match. This resulted in a 1-4 loss. This made it 2-2 heading into the doubles and everything to play for.

With Isha’s brilliant form so far, we partnered her with Sadhvi at 1. However, this matchup did not go in our favour with Lillia and Emma playing some solid tennis and keeping the ball in play, which made the difference. Our girls were more attacking, which led to some mistakes at crucial points leading to a 2-4 loss. Tattie and Leona, looking to take us into a shootout were up against Nina and Ada. This match went all the way to a tie-break, which again did not go our way, resulting in a 3-4 (1) loss. Leona and Tattie showed some brilliant, positive energy throughout the match and we could not have asked any more of them. The end result being a 4-2 loss overall.

With two matches played myself, Ant and the girls were still in great spirits. We felt like both matches could have gone either way, with just a few tight points here and there being the difference. Heading into the final match against Oxfordshire, with Sara again playing at 3 up against Darcy Harding. This match followed the theme of the day, really tight but for us not getting over the line. A second tie-break loss for Sara, but very proud at how she stuck at it and showed resilience. Tattie playing at 4, in her first singles of the day, playing against Qiao An Zheng. She played some fantastic tennis, really hitting the ball into spaces to move her opponent around the court, which resulted in a 4-1 win. Sadhvi played Emily at 1, where Emily was the other standout player of the day, barely missing a ball and hitting with good speed and depth on court. Sadhvi showed good perseverance in this match but did not have enough to win. Leona’s final singles match of the day, needed lots of resilience after two tough losses. It was great to see Leona still fighting for points and her attacking play was great in this match. Another tight tie-break loss 3-4 (4).

We were now 3-1 down heading into the doubles. Oxfordshire took a long time in deciding their team order, as they knew wherever Emily played would be a tough task for Bucks. They were trying to guarantee one win and avoid the shootout. This is how it panned out, with Sadhvi and Sara up against Isla and the very strong Emily, 0-4. Tattie and Leona sending us out with a fantastic win, with some brilliant net play shown by both girls. This resulted in a 4-0 win to us, ending the day on a high.

Final thoughts on the day were that all girls showed a great togetherness alongside the parents, with a good level of energy shown throughout the day. Both myself and Ant felt that the girls could have won all the matches if points could have fallen differently, or taking a tie-break here or there.  I do not doubt that this will be a great team heading into future Bucks competitions. We are super proud of everyone involved, special memories made from a brilliant day of tennis. We are looking forward to the Lionel Cox competition in May 2026.