Ashley Hewitt and Richard Gabb’s first campaigns at Junior Wimbledon came to an end yesterday (Tuesday) – despite putting up brave battles.

The teenagers, who both had wildcards for Junior Wimbledon, lost their second round matches in the boys’ singles draw and then shortly after joined forces in the boys’ doubles.

Gabb beat France’s Piere-Hugues Herbert 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 on his Junior Wimbledon debut on Monday.

He then put up an impressive battle against Germany’s number nine seed Dominik Schulz in round two on court 14 yesterday (Tuesday) before going down 7-6 (5), 6-4.

The German player needed a tie-break to take the first set and the second set went with serve until the fifth game, when Schulz broke Gabb’s serve to establish what proved to be a decisive 3-2 lead. The nine seed held his serve to make it 4-2 and the set then went with serve with Schulz closing out the contest at 6-4 to book a place in the third round.

Hewitt faced Harry Fowler of the USA in his second round tie.  The 17-year-old TeamBath Tennis Academy player took the first set 6-3 but the American romped to a 3-0 lead in the second set. Hewitt battled back to make it 4-2, but the Fowler levelled the contest by wrapping up the second set 6-3.

The American then won the decider 6-4 to book a place in the third round.

Hewitt had started his first Junior Wimbledon campaign by toppling number two seed and world junior ranked number four Liang-Chi Huang from Chinese Taipei 6-4, 7-5 to book a second round contest against Fowler.

Hewitt had a gap of just 90 minutes before returning to court alongside Gabb in the boys’ doubles first round, where they faced Alexandros–Ferd Geogoudas of Germany and Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus.  The TeamBath pair battled well but went down 6-4, 6-2.

Barry Scollo, TeamBath’s director of tennis, said: “The way Richard and Ashley dealt with their first round matches was particularly impressive. It’s a grand slam event, but they served out their matches well as if they’d been doing it all their lives.

“Every match is going to be tough at this level but they acquitted themselves well and hopefully they’ll be back next year. Obviously they came here wanting to win, but they’re a year early really and can play at Junior Wimbledon again next year.

“They done well here and at the Grade 1 ITF tournament at Roehampton last week, with some victories against some of the top players in the world in their age group.”

Former TeamBath player Hannah James lost her first round girls’ singles contest to Russia’s 15 seed Daria Gavrilova 6-2, 6-2.

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Posted: Wednesday 1st July 2009

All action photos from Junior Wimbledon by James Jordan