By PETER LUC
THE fourth round of the Medibank Junior Development Series (MJDS) was held on Sunday 5 May at Ballina/Alstonville Tennis Clubs.
As the series hit the halfway mark, 87 juniors from Grafton to Tweed Heads were trying to gain valuable points to consolidate a position in the top 8 of each age group.
Our juniors again represented the Tweed District in brilliant fashion with the majority of our players reaching the finals and some up and coming juniors finishing third or fourth in their pool to be very close to making the finals.
In the under-12 boys, the final was decided by a tie-break with Brandon Stockwell (Tweed Heads) taking his second win of the series and Flyn Schieb (Sonic Pottsville) runner-up.
In the under-14 boys, Brodie Clifford-Mullen (Sonic Pottsville) won his first final from training partner and pointscore leader Louis Clark (Sonic Pottsville).
Will Bagnall (Murwillumbah) played great tennis finishing runner up in the under-16 boys.
In the girls events, Saduni Wijeweera (Tweed Heads) continued her strong form in the under-14s, finishing runner-up in a close match to top Grafton junior Georgia Allen, while in the under-16 Girls, Amber Molloy (Sonic Pottsville) made it three wins from three starts taking home the winner’s trophy.
Locally, our junior winter competitions are now in full swing. After two rounds of our Friday night pennants comp, Pottsville’s Team Sonic and Kirra’s Wilson Wackers remain undefeated.
On the Australian rankings front, some milestones were reached by some of our junior tournament players after the April rankings were released.
Male
Aaron Westerlund, 16, (Terranora) – broke into the Australian men’s top 300 at position 293.
Cody Atkinson, 15, (Banora) – broke into the Australian men’s top 500 at position 481.
Caleb Maxted, 15, (Terranora) – broke into the Australian men’s top 1000 at position 986.
Zane Sillery-Shaw, 15, (Sonic Pottsville) – in 12 months has risen 2119 places to current Australian men’s position 1360.
Louis Clark, 14, (Sonic Pottsville) – maintained Australian age ranking 62 and broke into the NSW top 15 for his age.
Brodie Clifford-Mullen, 14, (Sonic Pottsville) – broke into the Australian top100 (and NSW top 20) for his age group.
Brody Luc, 13, (Kirra/Terranora) – broke into the Australian top 100 (and NSW top 30) for his age group.
Women
Amber Molloy, 15, (Sonic Pottsville) – broke into the Australian women’s top 500 at position 425.
Hannah McDonald, 14, (Sonic Pottsville) – jumped 151 places to Australian women’s ranking 605 and top 75 Australian age ranking.
Considering the Australian men’s and women’s rankings include all Australian professional players such Tomic, Hewitt, Stosur and the like, the above results are a fantastic achievement.
MJDS Ballina finalists
U12 Boys: Winner, Brandon Stockwell (Tweed Heads). Runner-up, Flyn Schieb (Sonic Pottsville). Semi-finalist, Jamie Krause (Tweed Heads). Quarter finalists, Ethan Horner (Mur’bah), Ethan Watts (Banora), Jacob Pedlow (Sonic Pottsville), Abhay Reissenberger (Mur’bah).
U14 Boys: Winner, Brodie Clifford-Mullen (Sonic Pottsville). Runner-up, Louis Clark (Sonic Pottsville). Semi-finalist, Teva Leibo (Sonic Pottsville). Quarter finalists, Patrick Myles (Sonic Pottsville), Brody Luc (Kirra/Terranora).
U14 Girls: Runner-up, Saduni Wijeweera (Tweed Heads), 3rd place, Zoe Cook-Hill (Tweed Heads).
U16 Boys: Runner-up, Will Bagnall (Mur’bah).
U16 Girls: Winner, Amber Molloy (Sonic Pottsville), 4th place, Tailey Beaver (Kingscliff).
