November 2015
Five winners through to the Compass IC Junior Challenge Finals
The regional events are now completed with Argentina, Spain, Japan, USA and South Africa qualifying for The Compass Worldwide Finals at the Country Club of Monte Carlo Sept 4th-9th 2016. They will be supplemented by a team from the host country.. They will all play each other over 5 days of international competition with social events in IC tradition for a great week of tennis and a lifetime experience.
Teams are made up of two boys and two girls 16 and under who all play both singles and doubles and compete as one combined team. After some exciting events with many close matches played in the good IC spirit of “Hands across the net, friendship across the ocean” Argentina the winners for South America overcame Chile and Uruguay in Buenos Aires. In Europe the host Spain came through in an incredibly close final match against Great Britain where a 13-11 tie break settled the whole result! Other European teams competing were Ireland, Luxembourg, Romania, Italy, Sweden and Bulgaria.
In Singapore Japan emerged as the winning Asian team with host Singapore, New Zealand, Pakistan and Israel taking part. While South Africa hosting that continents event once again came through for their place in the finals with Lesotho, Botswana and Namibian players involved.
As well as introducing top young juniors to the IC Family and concept of true tough friendly competition, where friends are made, there are also clinics for under privileged/disadvantaged kids held. The juniors join in these and so participate in the concept of “giving back” to others. Argentina had a great clinic at which IC Member Gabriella Sabatini ( Former US Open Champion) participated along with IC member Juan Chela and other top Argentinian players so the juniors could see that these players too are “giving back” to the game of tennis. A fine example for everyone and very much in the IC Spirit.
The Compass IC Junior Challenge continues to grow in reputation and is now well known among top juniors with those participating often saying it is the most enjoyable event of their tennis life so far. We hope they will have many more and that as they get older that The IC movement can provide much to their long term enjoyment of a “game for life”.
Details of each event: