THE Sunraysia District Tennis Association’s junior singles championships have taken centre stage with some quality tennis, sprinkled with some surprise outcomes, after the senior pennant was cancelled last Saturday due to wet weather.
Despite the deteriorating conditions on the day, good numbers participated across all grades and all matches were completed before the rain set in.
There were two cards of A Grade boys.
Card 1 hot favourite was Sacred Heart’s Derek Bagacay, a previous winner of the singles’ title.
He easily accounted for most of his opponents but a surprise 1-6 loss to Sarnia’s Mason Pinnington put Bagacay out of the running.
Clubmate Aydin Yazici then defeated Pinnington 6-3, finally taking out the card from Pinnington on a countback.
Card 2 was a close tussle between Red Cliffs’ Will Schreiber and Sarnia’s Cooper Young.
Just one game separated the boys after four sets and that was the tie-breaker that Schrieber won in his set against Young.
The final between Yazici and Schreiber was a re-match from pennant the week before when Schreiber got the victory but Yazici proved far too good on the day, taking out his first A Grade singles championship.
In the A Grade girls it was a close competition.
No one was able to win all their sets and the top three players finished within three games of each other.
The match of the card, was a very long and skilful encounter between Nicola DeMaria of Sacred Heart, and Sarnia’s Layla Searle.
Searle won the tie-break set 6-5, however her 3-6 loss to Sacred Heart’s Tami Fanoiki saw her finish in third spot on 27 games, one behind Fanoiki on 28 and the eventual A Grade girls champion DeMaria with 29 games.
Louis Nakhla was undefeated over four sets in the B Grade boys championship, but his 6-5 win over friend and teammate Neff Augustine was all that separated the Sacred Heart boys at the end of the day.
Derek Gardiner of Sarnia came a close third.
B Grade girls saw Sarnia’s Charlotte Hardy continue her fine form, winning all her sets, and she was the eventual champion over Charlotte Davis from Red Cliffs.
Adele Cameron and Clara Keens showed some real improvement in their individual games, which should see some great rivalries into the future.
Red Cliffs’ Caleb Leamon was quick out of the blocks in the C Grade boys championship and his big win over St Andrews’ Tom Wilson was the first of four for Leamon (the only set that Wilson dropped for the morning), leaving the boys in first and second position.
Wentworth was represented by Noah Brander and Jasper O’Shea.
The top two C Grade girls could not be separated, so it came down to a 10-point match tiebreak to decide the eventual winner.
As light rain began to fall, Samuella Allieu, of Sacred Heart, took on Wentworth’s Amelia Brander.
The lead changed several times as the girls displayed great skill and sportsmanship. A final score of 10-8 saw Allieu crowned C Grade girls champion for 2024.
D Grade girls was won by Summer Stewart of St Andrews, who did not drop a set.
Second was Tori O’Shea of Wentworth, and third, Charlie Bennett from Red Cliffs.
Nothing could match the enthusiasm of the D Grade boys competitors, Ashton Mihan from Wentworth and Nicholas Keens of Red Cliffs.
Their unbridled joy as they raced out on to the courts to play singles was infectious.
Newcomer Jake Wilson also had a great day, if a little hampered by his raincoat. The eventual champion was Keens.
There will be no play in the SDTA this week, but on July 13 the juniors and seniors will battle it out for the district doubles championships.
