MJTA players hope to entend ‘golden run’ at Tennis Tour
SANDAKAN: Fresh from their ‘’golden outing’’ at the recent Leg 6 of the Tennis Malaysia Junior Tour in Kota Kinabalu last week, MJTA’s junior players are determined to extend their winning streak at Leg 3 of the Sabah Junior Tennis Tour 2018 in Kota Kinabalu this weekend.
Led by their star player Harish John Sunil Manoharan, the youngsters from the Manoharan Junior Tennis Academy (MJTA) have revitalized themselves in preparation for this coming tournament.
“We spent several days at the Padas Farm stay in Tenom for R& Rand team bonding which are both very important for our young players,” said Taren Sunil, the Chef-de-Mission of the MJTA players.
“We are proud of the fact that the parents as well as the players have all happily volunteered to handle specific tasks for the team - from meals, team support, players’ hydration, team attire, photography, etc. right down to getting bananas ready for the players,” he said.
“It is the little things that we do for each other that builds up and strengthens our team spirit,” he pointed out.
The MJTA players are in high spirits having done quite well at the recent national level Tennis Malaysia Junior Tour that ended last week. They took home a total of two gold, one silver and four bronze medals.
Harish John hit peak form when he captured the two most prestigious titles at that tournament.
He won the Under-16 singles title by beating both the top seed and the second seed on the way to capturing the crown.
In the semifinals, Harish John overwhelmed top ranked Joe Chong of Selangor 6-0, 6-1. This was followed by a 7-6, 6-2 victory over second seed Mitchell Brapui Tidan of Sarawak in the final.
The second title for Harish John came from the Under-16 boys’ doubles event where he combined effectively with fellow Sabah junior Luke Guansing of Kota Kinabalu to stop the top seeded combination of Joe Chong and Mitchell Brapui Tidan in a tough duel.
They lost the first set 2-6 but fought back with determination to take the second set 7-6 (4). The deciding set went to a super tiebreak which the Sabah boys convincingly won by 10 points to 4 to capture the Under16 doubles title.
Meanwhile, MJTA’s other players also had a reasonably good outing.
Jashnavissri A/P Uigneswaran partnered Maegan Allison Tan to win the silver medal in the U-14 girls’ doubles. Jashnavissri also got a bronze in reaching the singles semifinals and so did Maegan Allison Tan.
Johnaton Chan and Ngui Larm got a bronze medal for reaching the semifinals of the U-16 boys’ doubles, losing to eventual champions Harish John and Luke.
Another bronze medal came from Jonathan Joshua Manoharan who partnered Sarawak player Raidon Tan to reach the Under-12 doubles semifinals where they lost 2-6, 5-7 to Suresh Kumar and Mohd Razib, the eventual champions from Negeri Sembilan.
“Considering that it was a national level tournament with top junior players coming from other states, our MJTA players did pretty well. Our players were also delighted and honoured that Sabah Youth and Sports Minister Frankie Poon was personally present to watch the finals and attend the prize-presentation ceremony. In fact, our minister and his wife were so kind as to take their time to have a group photo with our MJTA team,” said Taren Sunil.
All the MJTA players are now already back in Kota Kinabalu to participate in Leg 3 of the Sabah Junior Tour.
“It is quite demanding to play back-toback tournaments over two consecutive weekends but I am confident that our players will be able to keep up their momentum and give their best again,” said Taren Sunil, who is also president of Kelab Tenis Remaja Sandakan.