IC U16 Junior Challenge Worldwide Finals 2014 - taking place at Wimbledon July 28th to August 1st

IC of Great Britain to host the IC U16 Junior Challenge Worldwide Finals on the Championship courts at The All England Lawn Tennis Club in July 2014

Open to all 40 ICs around the world, the U16 Junior Challenge is the IC Council’s premier junior event.

The 2014 worldwide finals are proudly sponsored by Compass Group and will feature representative teams from the host nation Great Britain and the ICs of Italy, Japan, South Africa, Argentina and the USA, who qualified following a series of regional events that took place in 2013.

The opening round of matches will take place at Wimbledon on Monday 28th July and the tournament will comprise of a round-robin format over a five day period, concluding on Friday 1st August.  The referee for the event is Clare Wood, former professional player and assistant referee at The Championships, Wimbledon.

David Waite, Chairman of the IC of Great Britain said: “It’s a great honour to host such an important event in the IC Calendar; junior players represent the lifeblood of the IC family.  The IC Junior Challenge is highly competitive but it also encourages a spirit of fair play and sportsmanship among the next generation of players.

“We are grateful to The All England Lawn Tennis Club for acting as the host venue and providing such a prestigious opportunity for all involved.”

Each IC team will be represented by two U16 boys and two U16 girls, plus an adult captain/coach.  Matches are to start daily at 11am and will feature two boys’ singles, two girls’ singles, one boys’ doubles and one girls’ doubles.  In the event of a tie (3 matches all), there will be a 10-point match tiebreak played by one mixed doubles pair from each side.  Final positions will be determined by the number of tie wins. 

In keeping with the spirit of the IC, the 2014 worldwide finals will also feature a clinic for underprivileged children to be held at Wimbledon on the eve of the event.

Kit Spencer, IC Council member and lead representative for the IC Junior Challenge said: “This is the fifth worldwide finals since the event’s inception in 2005.  It has a strong history of attracting some of the world’s best junior players and more than 500 players have now participated in both regional qualifying events and worldwide finals, with many more involved in outreach programmes.  The IC Junior Challenge has become a real showcase for all of the great work done by players and volunteers from ICs around the world.”

Contacts

2013 Regional Qualifying Results

North American IC Junior Challenge, 14th – 16th Dec, The Bahamas.  Winners: IC of USA

Participating Teams: ICs of The Bahamas, Barbados, Mexico and USA

African IC Junior Challenge, 1st – 3rd Nov, Johannesburg, South Africa.  Winners: IC of South Africa

Participating Teams: ICs of Botswana, Mauritius, South Africa and Zimbabwe 

South American IC Junior Challenge, 13th – 15th Sep, Santiago, Chile.  Winners: IC of Argentina

Participating Teams: ICs of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay

Asian IC Junior Challenge, 20th – 24th September, Tokyo, Japan.  Winners: IC of Japan

Participating Teams: ICs of Australia, India, Japan, Pakistan and Singapore

Compass European IC Junior Challenge, 9th – 14th July, Albinea, Italy.  Winners: IC of Italy

Participating Teams: ICs of Austria, GB, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Russia, Spain and Sweden

U16 IC Junior Challenge Worldwide Finals, previous winners and host venues:
2012: IC of South Africa (Adelaide, Australia)

2010: IC of Great Britain (Commonwealth Games site, New Delhi, India)

2008: IC of New Zealand (ASB Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand)

2006: IC of New Zealand (Olympic Games site, Sydney, Australia)