Our second Super Series 1 Star tournament on the 15th of May proved to be even tougher, more competitive, and more enjoyable than our first. Several newcomers staked their claim to be in the top group, providing a stiff challenge for London Academy’s home stars. Eventually, after eight victories over two sessions, Rishaan Sawant became our our second title winner.

Winning the title is no easy task. You have to win your group in the morning to qualify for the championship band (Group 1) in the afternoon. Then you have to take on the winners of every other group if you are going to come out on top.

We had five gold medalists on the day from each of the afternoon groups.

Group 5 can often be a real struggle. Players need to bounce back from a tough morning session and try and establish themselves early on.

On the day no one competitor was able to dominate the group and eventually we had three players tied for first place. However, after a countback of sets, Ruby Gandi Bamidele narrowly beat Donika Aliu to take first place and the gold medal.

Donika’s winning margin over third placed Naomi Adjei was even narrower, showing just how competitive the group was.

Group 4 proved to be slightly uneven on the day. Shriya Nimse and Logan McFarlane improved on their previous showing by qualifying brilliantly for group 4. This meant that they came up against three improving London Academy boys and, as a result, found the going tough.

In the end Hugo took the Gold Medal in Group 4 with a solid win over second placed Nicolas Lavric, and a punishing 5-set win over third placed Korey Samuda.

Group 3 was the most competitive in our previous tournament, but this time the afternoon belonged to Inayah Zasella.

Inayah was in a relentless mood and lost only two sets in the afternoon to take a firm grip on the gold medal. Despite a heavy loss to the winner, Mohamed Radhy proved too consistent for the rest of the group and scored three wins of his own to take the silver.

Group 3’s bronze medal was settled in the final match of the day. A rowdy affair that saw Assil Sarri narrowly outgun Lewis McSween in four tight sets, that could have gone either way.

Group two saw the resumption of a sibling rivalry from our first competition in April. Last time Yacoub had beaten his sister Soraya n his way to taking the title. However this time Soraya got her revenge in a relatively one-sided match.

Neither of them, however, could deal with the rapidly improving Stephan Pop, who topped the group with 4 wins. Soraya took the silver, while newcomer John Paul Cabellon snatched the Bronze in the last match against Yacoub.

On the day Group 1 saw only one surviving player from our first tournament, Zach Sarri. Zach was also the only London Academy player to make the top band. There he was joined by was joined by previous visitor Chloe Kniep and three newcomers: Rishan Sawant, Nam Nguyen, and Sinan Surensoy.

Chloe had managed to move up two entire bands since the first tournament due to an excellent morning session.

Rishaan Sawant

On the day however, Rishaan proved to be the best of the best, losing only a single set in the afternoon to second placed Nam. Nam, in turn beat Sinan in three sets early on to ensure that he would take Silver and Sinan took the bronze with an efficient win over Zach, who eventually had to settle for fourth place.

Once again we would like to thank all of our young players and say congratulations to how they represented themselves throughout the day. We hope that this competition will be second of many to come. Watch this space.

London Academy were the only school to provide multiple winners, with Octavian Aparaschivei and Sienna Jetha taking gold in the Girls Under 13 and Boys Under 19 competitions.

But that wasn't all. The North London powerhouse eventually provided 4 winners and three finalists over all competitions on the day. No other school came close to this level of sustained excellence.

Sienna Jetha might have been forgiven for feeling a bit drained, given her recent gruelling schedule. But if she was, it still proved too much for the rest of the field as she sliced through the competition to take first place. Even the highly talented Evie Knaapen could do little to stem the tide as Sienna powered to victory in the final in straight sets (11-9, 11-8, 11-2).

Sienna attributed her confidence to her recent international victory in Linz.

The U13 Girls Plate final was won by Tadeea Aparaschivei, whose greater spin and control defeated proved too much for Jazmen Belay, winning 3-1 (11-9, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6).

In a marked contrast, Ocatavian Aparschievei seems to like doing things the hard way. The eventual U19 boys champion had to come from behind in his last two matches. The London Academy player seemed to have trouble finding his range in for a set and a half against Henry Maric-Murray in the semi-final, before moving up a gear to win (7-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-9).

The final saw Harry Buckle take a 2-1 lead with Octavian seeming out of sorts. However, the match changed completely at the beginning of the 4th, with Octavian taking the final two sets for a loss of only 4 points, winning the title with a 3-2 victory (6-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-1, 11-3). “I started off quite badly but slowly got myself into it, I was more comfortable towards the end and happy to get the win.”

Soraya Walentynska had an excellent run in the U11 Girls competition where she only lost out on the top spot to Maahi Malde. Just to underline the wealth of talent at the Academy, Soraya had to overcome her team-mate and friend, Inayah Zasella, in the semi-final.

The Plate saw Ruby Bamidele make her way to final where she lost in 4 sets to Astrid Styrvoldt-Chaigneau (3-11, 11-4, 11-3, 11-8).

Hopes were high in the U13 boys where Parsa Yamin and Shahuraj Nimse both reached the semi-finals of the main competition. However Parsa lost a tight 4-set match to eventual champion Adam Alibhai (11-5, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9).

Shahuraj came out on the wrong side of a highly competitive 5 setter against runner-up, Max Radiven (11-6, 7-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5).

In the U16 Girls competition London Academy notched another trophy when Alisha Dutta claimed the Plate victory, easily beating Jacqui Lesh 3-0 (11-4, 11-3, 11-2) in the final.

The under 16 boys saw Fernando Frandes make his way to the final of the Plate, where his excellent run finally came to an end against Joe Buscombe (11-6, 11-7, 11-6).

In a day of full of twists and turns Yacoub Rahmani Walrentskya ran out as the winner of our first ever super Series 1 Star Tournament.

This was out first ever 1 Star Under 11 Mixed event and it proved to be one of the most enjoyable days of the year so far.

25 young players battled for over six hours in two hard fought sessions to see who would be crowned champion on the day. The format was another first for us. Instead of the traditional group stages followed by knockouts we ran two round robin stage in the morning and afternoon.

We had five groups of five players in the morning session. The winners of each group went into the championship band in the afternoon. This way every player got to play 8 matches and the competition in the afternoon was ferocious.

Medals were awarded to the first, second and third placed player in each group which meant we had 15 medal winners on the day.

Our top group in the afternoon saw siblings Yacoub and Soraya Rahmani-Walentynska, compete against Stephan Pop, Zacharia Sarri, and the impressive newcomer Jia Jun Liu. Although Zach and Liu set the pace with early wins, it was Yacoub who made the most impressive start by coming back from 10-4 down to win in the fifth set against his sister Soraya, the top seed. This was followed by a tough 5 set win over Zach, and an efficient 3 set win over Stephan. Liu matched this with three wins of his own which meant they both went into the final game of the day undefeated. Yocoub, however, was not to be denied, taking the final match in three close sets. Zach ensured that he would go home with the bronze with a five set win over Soraya.

Group 2 saw Zach’s sister Assil sweep the board with 4 wins out of 4. Assil had to work hard to hold off the challenge of visitors Vivaan Karalkar and the talented and determined Violet-Lily Marquis. Like group 1 this came down to the final match of the day with Assil facing Violet Lily for the top spot. In a match which swung both ways, Assil finally manage to win a nail-biting 5th set 11-9.

Vivaan got his hands on third place with a 4 set win over Inayah Zasella.

The middle band proved to be the most competitive on the day with every match going to at least 4 sets. Despite losing to Hugo in the fourth match of the afternoon, Adam Riadi won gold with three wins out of 4. The remaining places went down to a countback between Hugo, Nicolas and Chloe Kniep. In the end even set averages could not separate the three players and it went down to points.

Hugo took the silver and Nicolas took the bronze with and average of 0.98 compared to Chloe’s 0.97. It really could not have been closer on the day.

The most hard working winner throughout the day was Connor Godley, who had to win two marathon 5-set matches to take gold in group 4. In the end only 2 points separated him from silver medal winner Mohammed Rahdy. Third place went to Donika Aliu, who battled hard to take the bronze with a last ditch win over Leah Brown.

Pride of place in our last group went to newcomer Logan McFarlane. Logan bounced back from a tough morning group to win every game in the afternoon, beating London Academy regulars Serene Rahmani-Walentynska, Naomi Adjei, Collin Gaman, and Shriya Nimse. Serene took the silver with a convincing win over third placed Collin.

Congratulations to all of young players who were represented themselves and their clubs wonderfully throughout the day. We are already looking forward to our next 1 Star in May.