STEPHANIE Cornish’s third round hoodoo in the AEGON International Junior Champ-ionships struck again this week.

The Billericay-based player had never progressed beyond the third round of the event which is held at Roehampton, south west London.

And after an excellent 6-3 1-6 6-0 win over 14th seed Beatrice Capra, from the USA, 17-year-old Cornish lost 6-3 6-2 to Poland’s Magda Linette.

Linette is ranked 31 and Cornish 46, but the Essex player was delighted with her performance against Capra, who was one of the 16 seeded players. “I’m really pleased with the win,” said Stephanie. “It was a tough match as she just seemed to make so many balls.

“Everything just kept coming back over the net no matter what I threw at her.

“I seemed to go to sleep a bit in the middle of the match but I was glad to get my concentration to back which really helped during the long rallies.

“She was a very hard opponent to play but I was expecting a tricky time simply because of her ranking.

“I know grass is a good surface for me so I just played my own match and stuck to the game plan.”

The International Junior Championships are a proven training ground for up and coming players, with current men’s and women’s British number ones Andy Murray and Anne Keothavong both having been champions.

l DAVID Lloyd Basildon were knocked out of the AEGON Team Tennis Nine and Under tournament at the eastern region stage.

The quartet — Katie McGarrigle, Toby Dunlea, Harry Hylton and Alexander Groves — travelled to Culford School in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, to represent Essex after being crowned county champions.

Seven teams contested the regional final, divided into a group of three and a group of four.

David Lloyd were in the group of three and although the teams finished level on points, the Essex champs were eliminated on countback.