Tweed Tennis By PETER LUC
AFTER eight rounds of the North East NSW Medibank Junior Development Series, the top eight players from the upper and lower divisions competed at the Champion of Champions event at Grafton on 26 to 28 July.
This year’s Champion of Champions event showcased some of the best juniors in the Forster to Tweed region and was attended by Tennis Australia’s NSW coach and player talent development manager Callum Beale, who ran a two-hour training session on Friday afternoon with over 50 juniors attending.
Callum, who attended US College Tennis then played on the ATP Tour and was Lleyton Hewitt’s training partner for a year, also ran information sessions for players and parents that were very informative.
Our 14 players, all played admirably, with a huge 11 juniors making the finals and qualifying for the next level, the North East/North West NSW Champion of Champions event at Inverell in August.
From that event a squad will be chosen to play the Medibank State Final, the most prestigious junior tennis tournament in NSW.
Congratulations to Jai Rowe for winning the under-12 boys, runners-up under-12 boys Flyn Schieb, under-14 boys Brodie Clifford-Mullen, under-16 girls Tailey Beaver and to Louis Clark under-14 boys for winning the Ken Wray Sportsmanship Award.
Also to Ethan Horner, Montana Taylor, Jacob Pedlow who played very well and a special mention to Ena Mitchell under-12 girls, who was to play in her first Champion of Champions event but had to withdraw due to injury prior to the event.
All will be a force in next year’s event.
Well done to the following qualifiers for Inverell:
U10 boys: Mac Mehrtens.
U12 boys: Jai Rowe, Flyn Schieb, Brandon Stockwell, Jamie Krause.
U14 boys: Brodie Clifford-Mullen, Teva Leibo, Louis Clark, Brody Luc.
U16 boys: Will Bagnall.
U16 girls: Tailey Beaver.
