The second London Academy 2 Star of the 2016-17 season took place on February 5th in Edgware. There was a good size entry of 82 players (128 entries).
There was a decent contingent of 16 girls too. The day belonged to Federica Bonato (Mi), who won both the Girls’ U15s & U18s events.
Mixed Under-11s
There were 16 players in the U11s. All 24 matches in the groups went according to ranking, which was very unusual, although Maliha Baig (E) did push fourth seed, Thomas Palmer (Mi) to the fifth set.
In fact, 100% of the main event knockout rounds also went according to ranking. In the quarters, top seed Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy), beat Jenson Moreno (Mi) 3-1, Palmer beat Thomas Nicol (Bd) 3-1, Charlie Nabarro (Mi) beat Baig 3-0 and Jakub Piwowar (Dv) beat Aarav Shah (Mi) 3-0.
Maric-Murray knocked out Palmer in four in the semis, while Piwowar accounted for Nabarro in three at the same stage. Maric-Murray won the final in four sets.
The only match in the main event which did not go according to ranking was the bronze medal match, in which Palmer defeated Nabarro in straight sets. Francesco Bonato (Mi) beat Sam Gabriel (Mi) 3-0 in the consolation final.
Boys’ Under-13s
There were 23 players in this event and no big surprises at the group stage or in Round 1. In the quarter-finals No 1 seed Jake Grayson (Mi) overcame Henry Maric-Murray (Sy) 3-0, Marco Plate (He) beat the slightly higher ranked Alessio Marrocco (Sx-Brighton City TTC) 11-8 in the fifth set, Mikaeel Toosy (Sy) defeated Piwowar 3-0 and Ollie Maric-Murray accounted for Nabarro 3-0.
The semi-finals were both five-setters, with Grayson overcoming Toosy and Plate coming through against Maric-Murray. Club-mates Grayson and Plate contested the final and Grayson triumphed 3-1 in a close match.
The third/fourth place play-off was another five-ender with Toosy snatching the bronze medal. Francesco Bonato won his second consolation final of the day, beating Barney Mindlin (Mi) in the deciding set.
Boys’ Under-15s
39 players took part in this age group, which was the largest of all the events. There were a few upsets at the group stage here. Firstly No 2 seed, Fraser Kent (Sx-Weald TTC) lost to Arjun Arora (Mi), who was 250 points below him. To make matters worse for Kent, Arora had lost to Jon-Vai-Chung (Sy), which resulted in Kent going into the consolation event on a three-way countback. Chung won the group.
Shikhar Pandey (Mi-London Academy TTC) defeated No 6 seed Grayson 3-0, while Yacine Boubekeur (Mi-London Academy TTC) had two very good unexpected wins over players ranked over 250 points above him (Adam Benmohamed (Mi) and Saachin Bhatt (Mi)).
In the knockout stages eventual winner and top seed Zaiim Premji (Mi) had wins over Arora, Grayson, Charlie Graham-Adams (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) and Mojtaba Adel (Mi-London Academy TTC) in the final all without conceding an end.
Adel on the other hand, had a very different route to the final, losing to Premji 0-3 in the group, then beating Jack Trafford (Do) 3-1, No 4 seed Will Michell (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) 3-1, club-mate Pandey 14-12 in the fifth set and Thevian Loganathan (Mi) 13-11 in the fifth.
The other quarter-final results were Loganathan beating Bhatt 3-2 and Graham-Adams beating Valerio Bucci (Mi-London Academy TTC) 3-0. Graham-Adams went on to win the bronze medal, beating Loganathan 3-0.
Kent unsurprisingly won the consolation event, beating Toosy 3-0 in the final, but he had been pushed to five sets in the quarters by William Hart (Sy).
Boys’ Under-18s
27 players participated in the Boys U18s. All but one of the seeded players won their group. The exception was that sixth seed, Tom Black (Mi-London Academy TTC) who lost to Graham-Adams 3-0. Black then lost to Murhad Hussain (Mi) 3-1 in Round 1, after having got to the semi-final of the last London Academy 2 Star.
In the quarters Gaurav Aravind (Mi), the top seed, beat Hussain 3-1, Sammy Kaye (Mi) beat Carl Breindel (Mi) 3-2, Jack Stockdale (E) beat Joe Newman (Mi) 3-0 and No 2 seed George Coulson (He) ended the run of Graham-Adams 3-0.
In the semis Gaurav knocked out Kaye 3-1 and Stockdale ousted Coulson 3-0. Stockdale continued his fine form in the final, winning in straight sets. Kaye received a walkover and got the bronze medal by default.
In a very strong consolation event, Chung emerged the winner, winning a very tight final 3-2 (14-12, 8-11, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10) vs Alejandro Ito-Aramendia (Sy).
Girls’ Under-13s
There were just five players in this category in a round-robin group. Top player Raquel Sao Pedro (Mi) won all four of her matches all 3-0 to win the event. Millie Rogove (He) came second as expected with three wins, while Connie Reynolds (He), got the bronze medal with two unexpected wins. Baig defeated Abbie Hurley (K) in five sets to get fourth place.
Girls’ Under-15s
There were eight players in this age group. Rogove had an unexpected 3-0 win over No 1 seed, Sao Pedro, but then lost to the lower ranked Aimey Gerald Jouvnarouk (Mi), also 3-0. This resulted in a three-way countback and the final order of the group was 1) Gerald Jouvnarouk, 2) Rogove, 3) Sao Pedro. This meant that for the second time that day, a top two seed went into a consolation event.
The upsets continued in Group 2, with No 2 seed Federica Bonato losing 3-2 to third ranked Gracie Edwards (E). In the semi-finals Bonato knocked out Gerald Jouvnarouk 3-0 and Edwards eliminated Rogove also 3-0. Bonato got her revenge over Edwards in the final 21-19, 11-9, 11-8.
There was a massive battle for third place, with Rogove scraping the win 12-10 in the fifth. Sao Pedro recovered to win the consolation final 3-0 vs Isabella Hudson (Mi).
Girls’ Under-18s
There were 10 players in this event in three groups. There was one unexpected result at the group stage, with Jasmine Chan (Mi) defeating No 3 seed Edwards 3-0.
In the quarters Edwards beat Gerald Jouvnarouk 3-0, while Chan eliminated Hudson by 11-9 in the fifth. In the semis Bonato faced Edwards for the third time that day and won 12-10 in the fifth, while Chan knocked out No 2 seed, Mya Sultan (Mi) 3-1.
The final was a straight sets win for Bonato over Chan, while Sultan beat Edwards 3-1 in the bronze medal match. Holly Long (Bu) beat Zareh 3-2 to win the consolation event.
Summary of results
Mixed U11s:
Main: Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy) beat Jakub Piwowar (Dv) 3-1 (11-2, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7)
Consolation: Francesco Bonato (Mi) beat Sam Gabriel (Mi) 3-0 (12-10, 11-5, 11-8)
Boys U13s:
Main: Jake Grayson (Mi) beat Marco Plate’ (He) 3-1 (12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5)
Consolation: Francesco Bonato (Mi) beat Barney Mindlin (Mi) 3-2 (10-12, 8-11, 11-5, 14-12, 11-6)
Boys U15s:
Main: Zaiim Premji (Mi) beat Mojtaba Adel (Mi) 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 14-12)
Consolation: Fraser Kent (Sx) beat Mikaeel Toosy (Sy) 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-3)
Boys U18s:
Main: Jack Stockdale (E) beat Gaurav Aravind (Mi) 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-8)
Consolation: Jon-Vai Chung (Sy) beat Alejandro Ito-Aramendia (Sy) 3-2 (14-12, 8-11, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10)
Girls U11s:
Maliha Baig (E) beat Isabelle Lacorte (He) 3-1 (8-11, 13-11, 11-8, 13-11)
Girls U13s:
Round Robin: 1st: Raquel Sao Pedro (Mi), 2nd Millie Rogove (He)
Girls U15s:
Main: Federica Bonato (Mi) beat Gracie Edwards (E) 3-0 (21-19, 11-9, 11-8)
Consolation: Raquel Sao Pedro (Mi) beat Isabella Hudson (Mi) 3-0 (11-3, 11-2, 11-9)
Girls U18s:
Main: Federica Bonato (Mi) beat Jasmine Chan (Mi) 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-5)
Consolation: Holly Long (Bu) beat Nikka Zareh (Sx) 3-2 (7-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-3, 11-6)