All out fare blows up a storm in Buffalo City mini-series

TOP-CLASS tennis was the order of the day as the Tennis Buffalo City mini-series was played out at Selborne Park at the weekend.

Despite the gale-force wind conditions on Saturday the 85 players taking part battled through the tricky conditions, with some exciting high quality tennis fought out over the two days.

The men’s open division provided good entertainment for a crowd which saw the fleetfooted and hardhitting Samuel Towns beat Kwanda Mbalekwa 6-2, 6-3.

The girls U18 section was then won by Dana Philip from Buffalo City as she beat Bernice Bezuidenhout from George 6-2, 6-2.

Earlier on the way to the final Philip beat the up-and-coming junior Devina Pillay 6-0, 6-0, while Bezuidenhout made light work of Emma Marx by winning 6-3, 6-1.

In the doubles division the Marx sisters, Emma and Jessica, overpowered Sisipho Ndlabhu and Devina Pillay while on the men’s front Samuel Towns was once again victorious this time partnering with Mbalekwa and together they overpowered Daniel Tam and Van Dyk from Cradock.

The boys U16 section was won by the hard-hitting Joseph Towns who beat Mazizi Matsha from Nelson Mandela Metro 6-1, 6-0.

Earlier Towns accounted for Thina Ndlabhu 6-0, 6-2 whileMatsha beat 12year-old Nikhil Naidoo 6-3, 6-2, with Naidoo then claiming third place by beating Ndlabhu 3-6, 6-4, 10-8.

The boys U12 was played on a round-robin basis and the winner was Henco Fourie from Joe Gqabi district with the runner-up Jordan Gertzen from Cape Town.

The girls U12 section was won by the up-and-coming Erin Peters who showed no mercy in beating Kelly Emslie 6-2, 6-0.

On the way to the final Peters beat Erin Slater 6-4, 6-1 while Emslie beat Anja Bezuidenhout 6-2, 6-2, while in the third/fourth playoff Slater beat Bezuidenhout 6-4, 6-3.

The boys and girls U10 section then saw a record entry of over 30 players.

The winner of the boys section was Evan Swart and Oliver Smith and runners-up were Xhawe Mbetshu and Arron Louw, while the girls champs were Taylor Bennet and Marie-Jane Smith with Sunel Fourie and Venus Smith as runners-up.

“These young boys and girls kept their parents entertained for most of Saturday and our future Raven Klaasen could be in their ranks,” said Tennis Buffalo City president Neil Naidoo.

“A special thank you to the Claredon Primary School for so generously making available their tennis courts for the U10s to play their matches there.”