Juniors spring into action
A large number of out of town entries boosted the quality of the Talley’s Junior Spring Open tennis tournament, held in Richmond on the weekend.
Doubles matches led play on Friday afternoon with the largest draw, 12u boys, being dominated by the top seeds. Second seed E. Santillan Gonzaga (Christchurch) and Stanley Long (Auckland) gave the top seeds Harry Pugh (Hope) and Brandon Brooker (Marlborough) a run for their money in a two set match, but the top of the south combination of Pugh and Brookers still prevailed 6-4 6-2.
The pairing of local player Ashley Welsh with Auckland’s Emma Anderson proved formidable, winning the 12s girls doubles, conceding only four games in the process.
The boys’ doubles in the 14-16 age group was a close call in a round robin that produced evenly matched games throughout the round, with a countback on sets to decide the winners; Oscar Parkinson and Oscar Sandfordjury (Marlborough) gold, with Alex Brogan and Logan Ogilvie taking silver.
The 8u boys winners were Zac Redpath and Roy Inwood, girls winners were Shawna Hahn and Brooke Robinson, and the 14/16/18 girls doubles went to Christie Gilbert and Farrah Richards.
This year’s 8u singles drew good entries in both girls and boys. Daniel Tomlinson and Shawna Hahn took the wins in the robin draws.
Sarah Innes-Walker upset the seeding to take the girls 10s title, with Lucy Mitchell the runner up in a close game 4-1 5-4 7-2.
Auckland player Max Richardson had a convincing 4-1 4-0 win in the boys 10s age group against Finn Brown.
The 12s girls final was an out of town affair which revved up in the second set as Auckland player Emma Anderson challenged Christchurch’s Wonjeong Kim in an attempt to take the second set. However, Wonjeong won the match 6-1 7-6 to take the title.
This tournament saw a return to form in the 14s boys singles with Sam Innes Walker recovering from injury to take gold, beating Oscar Parkinson 6-4 6-1.
Experience and consistency saw Alex Brogan win the boys 16s singles comfortably over runnerup Logan Ogilvie.
Hope’s Charlotte Osborn won the 14/16/18 girls singles title. Alkmini Giannakogiorgou pushed her in the second set of the deciding match but Osborn stood fast to win 6-2 7-5.