Tweed Tennis By Peter Luc
TWEED junior tennis goes into over-drive this weekend ahead of the school holiday break.
Saturday will see the final round of the pennants/fixtures competitions before the break and on Sunday Tweed host the penultimate round seven of the Junior Development Series.
With a lot of players needing points to secure a top-eight position we’re expecting a big acceptance list for Sunday’s event which will be held at Murwillumbah, Banora, Kingscliff and Terranora tennis clubs. The best players from throughout the region are expected to converge on the Tweed for the event.
Meanwhile Tweed District juniors went in all different directions with a huge range of junior tournaments on offer during the Queens Birthday long-weekend.
Locally, the Gold Coast junior championships were held in showery conditions. With a very big field lined up, the tournament managed to get through the rain delays until the finals were eventually abandoned.
In the under-12 boys, Jai Rowe was knocked out early in the main draw by the number two seed, but rebounded to make it to the consolation final. At these big tournaments, the consolation is like a tournament itself, so it was a great effort to make it to the final. Jai also made it to the doubles quarter finals.
In the under-14 Boys, Louis Clark (10th seed) made it to the main draw Qtr Finals going down to the No1 seed, whilst Brodie Clifford-Mullen made it to the Rd16 going down to the No2 seed. In the consolation events, Brody Luc, playing his first U14’s tournament made it to the Qtr Finals and Teva Leibo made it to the Semi Finals. Louis and Teva also paired up to get to the Doubles Qtrs.
In the under-14 girls, Hannah McDonald made it to the main draw quarters losing to the number one seed, while Saduni Wijeweera got to the consolation quarters and Tailey Beaver round 16 consolations after losing in a nail-biting three tiebreak sets.
In the under-16 boys, Cody Atkinson (fifth seed) put in a great effort getting to the main draw semis beating the number two seed along the way. Trafford McCrory, continuing his hot form this year winning the Caboolture under-18 title in early June, finished in the tournament’s main draw quarters losing to the number one seed; and Manu Rowe (10th seed) got to round 16.
Heading down south, Aaron Westerlund represented the Tweed District in great fashion at the North Coast championships. Aaron, 16, was first seed in the under-21 men’s and took home the title. He also teamed up with another local, Dylan Bloor, to win the special men’s doubles, with another local Reece Williamson as runner-up. Aaron then went on to the main event, the men’s AMT, where he was fourth seed and made it to the semi-finals before losing to the top class number one seed Brendan Moore.
And heading up north to the hotly contested Gladstone AMT, Blake Kebblewhite and Amber Molloy shone bright again where they both won their respective under-18 titles and made it to the AMT doubles quarters. Amber also fought hard to the reach the women’s AMT qualifying consolation final, before rain eventually washed out the final.
