Tweed Tennis By Peter Luc
TWEED players have dominated the prestigious Bruce Lynton BMW Rosebowl tournament held on the Gold Coast over the past two weekends, taking out both the boys and girls under-18 divisions.
The competition is considered a major springboard for young players, with recent winners including Bernard Tomic and Mark Draper. Last year’s winner Tweed’s Blake Kebblewhite heads off to play US College Tennis next month.
Murwillumbah’s Manu Rowe followed in Kebblewhite’s shoes winning the boys under-18 division in a hard-fought final against Gold Coaster Ben Mitchell 7-6, 7-6. It was a case of second time lucky for Rowe who took out the under-18s consolation competition last year.
In the girls draw Kebblewhite’s Sonic’s team-mate Amber Molloy also stepped up to win the main event. After finishing third last year, she took home the under-18 girls title with a solid 6-2, 6-3 victory over Gold Coast’s Samantha Cameron.
This year we again had some of junior players, who are only 15 and 16 years old, excel in this event.
Cody Atkinson (Banora), who usually competes in the under-16 age group, entered the Men’s AMT and made it through to the main draw final 16 players – a huge effort.
Trafford McCrory (Sonic) also entered the Men’s AMT. He got knocked out early in the main draw but bounced back to make it through to the consolation quarter finals.
It makes a juniors president very proud that our up-and-coming juniors can win both under-18 titles this year and back-to-back boy’s titles.
All four players have shone for the Tweed District.
