MJTA players shine at Sandakan tennis tourney
KOTA KINABALU: Players from the Manoharan Junior Tennis Academy (MJTA) won seven gold and three silver medals to stamp their mark at the annual schools tennis tournament organised by the Sandakan District School Sports Council.
The remarkable results came less than a week after their successful outing at the Tawau leg of Sabah Junior Tennis Tour where they had also put up a brilliant show.
At this MSSD Sandakan tournament, which ended Saturday morning, MJTA players won the gold medal in all of the seven events they participated in. They also emerged as silver medallists at three of these events, only losing to their own team mates in the finals.
“I have to praise our juniors for outdoing themselves and giving us a very pleasant surprise,” admitted an elated Taren Sunil Manoharan, the coordinator of MJTA.
Grace Chan started the ball rolling by winning the Girls Under-12 singles event by beating Tan Pei Qi in the final to collect the first gold medal.
This was followed by Harish John Sunil Manoharan, who won the Boys Under-18 singles and doubles titles. Not to be outdone, their top girl player Jashnavissri A/P Uigneswaran also won both the singles and doubles titles in the Girls Under-15 category.
Rishegeswaran A/L Uigneswaran then captured the Under-15 Boys singles crown and Jonathan Joshua Sunil Manoharan emerged as the singles champion in the Boys Under-12 category.
Meagan Allison Tan won the Girls Under-15 doubles gold medal with Jashnavissri and was runner-up to her partner in the singles event.
Johnaton Chan was runner-up in the Boys Under-18 doubles. He partnered Mark Reuben Pang but lost to Harish John and Hiew Kee Jun in the final. Completing the medal haul was Sharrvineswaran A/L Uigneswaran, who won the silver medal in the Under-12 boys singles after losing to fellow MJTA player Jonathan Joshua in the final.
“It is quite obvious that our policy of regularly sending our juniors to take part in tournaments is bearing fruit. They are now able to cope with tournament pressure and thus can play up to their respective standards,” said Taren Sunil.
He also acknowledged yet again the important role of the parents who came along to support their children during the tournament.
“The parents took turns in arranging breakfast and other meals for our juniors. We also sat back to enjoy watching our kids play. And we reminded our kids to enjoy the game too, winning is just an added bonus,” Taren Sunil said.