A 13-strong squad packed with national champions has been selected by England for the European Youth Championships in Sweden in July.
Twins Connor and Anna Green, who won the Junior singles titles within minutes of each other at the Mark Bates Ltd Cadet, U17 & Junior Nationals, spearhead the older squads.
Under-17 champions Ralph Pattison and Tianer Yu, and Cadet champions Abraham Sellado and Sienna Jetha, are also in the squad.
The full England squad is:
Junior Boys: Connor Green, Isaac Kingham, Ralph Pattison, Ben Piggott, Larry Trumpauskas
Junior Girls: Anna Green, Sienna Jetha, Ella Pashley, Tianer Yu
Cadet Boys: Adam Alibhai, Kacper Piwowar, Max Radiven, Abraham Sellado
The Championships, in Malmo from July 12-21, begin with the team events, with individual (singles and doubles) competitions to follow.
England are not sending a Cadet Girls team, Head of Performance Development, Gavin Evans, said:
“The reason for us not sending a Cadet Girls team to this years EYC is entirely focused on what is best for performance and the overall culture of our pathway. It’s important we give the right exposure at the right time, where it can act as a developmental or performance based exercise. In this case the Performance Team felt this would be detrimental to those who put themselves forward. We are sending two girls to the under 13 European Championships, I’m sure this will be a great development experience. We are hugely passionate and committed to investing in our young girls within our pathway and have been very open in our talent strategy around gender parity. We are also holding our first girls only Talent ID day where 36 under 12 girls will be joining us for a training day. In Summary the EYC would have been a step too far for our current girls in the pathway. I wish the very best of luck to those competing and congratulations on their selections.“
Meanwhile, the squad for the European Under-13 Championships in Romania from May 22-26 has also been announced.
The squad is:
Boys: Dimitar Dimitrov, Ryan Goodier, Pablo Ramirez Rioja
Girls: Violet Lily Marquis, Hannah Saunders