Tennis at Bradfield continues to go from strength to strength and the teams hit new heights this year, not just by beginning to challenge the established ‘big names’ such as Reed’s, Eton and St. George’s, but beating them as well.
The performance programme was in full flow throughout the Michaelmas and Lent Terms with four weekly sessions for College athletes, induvidual lessons and a supplementation of commercial academy sessions. It is hard not to appreciate the opportunities players have at Bradfield and it is easy to see why the College’s tennis teams are on the rise. It is thanks to the dedication and hard work of the tennis coaching team that players have seen vast improvements this year while securing some remarkable results in LTA, ITF, and UTR events.
The sport is now one of the more popular summer sports with 29 teams in total taking to the courts during the Summer Term. Records fell during a packed fixture list for all teams. The Senior girls’ and U16 girls’ teams both lost just once during their regular season fixtures and the former may have gone through the season unbeaten had their rearranged fixture with Marlborough not happened in the middle of the examination season. The Senior boys’ team achieved an unbeaten season, winning the Independent Schools Tennis Senior League for the first time in Bradfield’s history. The boys beat everyone in the competition to win by a single set over rivals Eton.
Our Faulkner’s pupils wasted no time getting stuck into tennis and seized their opportunity to play some competitive fixture while partnering new teammates and getting to know one another a little more on and off the court.
It has been quite a year for tennis and all signs point to next year being even better. A huge thanks to everyone from the Tennis Department, led by Director of Tennis Damian Fuller, as well as our Director of Sport Matt Ruxton.
