TRINITY schoolgirl Emily Syms was beaten in the final of the eight-and-under Flybe Tennis Masters event, held at Ivybridge Tennis Centre at the weekend.
To qualify for the Masters final, players needed to finish in the top eight on either the Devon or Cornwall leaderboard.
Emily, despite being a year younger than most of the other competitors, finished in third place on the Devon leaderboard.
In the Masters event, Emily won through the group stages with wins over Lauren Knight, of Taunton, 10-6, Archie Becconsall, Cornwall, 10-5 and Louis Cain, also of Cornwall, 10-4.
In the quarter-final she beat Exeter's Matthew Rutter 10-2 and followed this up with a hard fought semi-final win over Torquay's Oliver Godley, 12-10.
In the final, Emily faced top seed Taylor Ingham-Hill, who is coached, like Emily, by her father Mark Syms at the Teignmouth Tennis Academy.
In front of a large crowd, including many officials from Devon Tennis, regional and national coaches as well as LTA chief executive Roger Draper, both youngsters played a great match, with Taylor coming away with the victory 10-6 and the prize of a holiday to the La Manga sports complex in Spain.
Despite being dissapointed, Emily was proud of her achievement in reaching the Masters finals and going so close to winning the event.
Coach and father Mark said she played some great tennis thoughout the series and in particular in the Masters final.
'Emily goes from strength to strength with her tennis and is now ranked in the top ten players of her age in Great Britain.'
Next up for Emily is a national event in Cardiff before teaming up with Taylor and other members of the Teignmouth Tennis Club to compete in the eighyt-and-under National Junior Club League. PLENTY OF OTHER SPORT IN OUR ONLINE EDITION