GB Students achieved an historic silver medal after reaching the final against the USA in a repeat of last year’s final. The silverware is the seventh medal in a row and sixth consecutive final for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Championships as well as a 12th consecutive medal at major international university events including the Summer World University Games.
GB Students were drawn against Belgium in the first round of the tournament and the determination of the team was set out early. Finn Bass, Eliz Maloney, James Story and Millie Rajecki all cruised through their singles in straight sets wrapping up a 4-0 win to progress to the semi final. To conclude the day and make the series an unofficial 7-0 win the men’s doubles (Finn Bass and James Story), women’s doubles (Esther Adeshina and Millie Rajecki) and mixed doubles (Esther Adeshina and Liam Hignett) all picked up wins to put the team on a high going into the semi final against Australia.
The semi-final saw wins for James Story and Finn Bass in the Men’s Singles and Esther Adeshina and Millie Rajecki in the Women’s Doubles. The score going into the final game of the day was 3-3 and everything was on the line going into the mixed doubles. Up stepped Esther Adeshina and Liam Hignett and with the fate of the team in their hands did not disappoint. GB took the first set 6-4 with Australia winning 6-3 in the second. The game went to tie break and the duo dug deep to win 10-7 to take team GB Students to another final against Team USA.
The team were full of confidence going into finals day, with the standard of competition extremely high. Great displays from all our singles players saw some closely competed games including a win from Millie Rajecki but ultimately the USA emerged victorious with a 4-1 win claiming another title in the competition.
GB Students team captain Alistair Higham commented on the team’s success ”We’re proud to win a seventh consecutive medal at the Master’U.”
“Barry Scollo, Ana Soares and I work hard to create the environment in which the team can perform at their highest level. The team spirit was terrific and pulled us through for a second year in the tightest of matches that went to the wire against Australia in the semi-final.”
Congratulations to all the athletes involved in this year’s edition of Master’U, another exceptional display of talent from around the world.
