Amy Blagbrough and Isabelle Joubeily claimed fifth place in the cadet team event at the Prague Grand Prix at the weekend.

They started well in the group, beating a Slovakian team 3-0. Next up was a Hungarian team and, with Blagbrough winning both her matches the result was down to the doubles. Unfortunately the Hungarians proved too strong and claimed the match 3-2.

That result meant they had to beat group favourites, a team from the Czech Republic, to qualify for the main draw. With both Blagbrough and Joubeily each winning a match the result was again down to the doubles, but this time they made no mistake winning 3-1 and the match 3-2.

The English pair therefore finished as runners-up in the group, to the Czech team, and qualified for the quarter-finals. Against a Czech/Welsh pairing this match followed the same pattern of their previous ones, each player winning one, and the doubles being the decider. At 2-0 up they looked to be cruising into the semi-final, but against some fine attacking play, particularly from the Czech player, it was soon 2-2. The fifth game was close but it eventually swung the way of their opponents 11-9. In the fifth to eighth place play-off, they won both their matches to claim overall fifth.

In the Cadet singles event both girls qualified for the main draw from their respective groups, Blagbrough as group winner and Joubeily as runner-up.

In the last 16, Blagbrough played Kamillia Bokros. At 1-0 down, Blagbrough took the next two games only to see Bokros take the fourth. However, Blagbrough was always in control of the fifth and took it to move into the quarter-finals.

In her last 16 match Joubeily took the first game against Agata Paszek, but Paszek recovered well to take the next three very close games.

In her quarter-final match, Blagbrough played Tereza Pytlikova and easily took the first two games. The next two games were incredibly close with Pytlikova just edging each one. At 7-3 up in the fifth Blagbrough looked in control, but Pytlikova fought back to eventually take the game and the match.

June 2, 2015