Sutherland-smith serves up aces

Manawatu¯ junior Hannah Sutherland-smith has continued a golden run over the off-season by adding four titles to her trophy cabinet at the Wanganui Tennis Open.

Last weekend the 15-year-old claimed the open women’s singles and doubles titles and backed it up by also taking the 16s girls’ singles and doubles titles this week.

The past two months especially have been successful for Sutherland-smith including toppling highly ranked New Zealand player Antonia Lawson in the final of the Regional Performance tournament in Wellington six weeks ago.

On the weekend, Sutherlandsmith went into the open event as the top-seed for both the singles and doubles events and apart from being pushed to a third set in one of the doubles by Ngakuira Osbourne and Carly Chang, she was not troubled in the remainder of her matches.

Sutherland-smith was seeded second in her 16s singles draw and had to face two players who she had suffered defeat to in her last appearances against.

Wellington player Claire Brownlie had beaten Sutherlandsmith on both of the previous occasions they had faced each other, but in the semifinals the tables were turned and Sutherland-smith claimed a hard fought 6-4 6-3 victory.

In the final Sutherland-smith had to face top Taranaki age group junior Nakayla Barnard, who Sutherland-smith actually has a winning record against but had lost to in their previous outing.

In this instance Sutherlandsmith would exact revenge and with a 6-3 6-2 win, claiming her third title of the tournament.

The final medal came in the 16s doubles where Sutherland Smith teamed up with long term junior training and doubles partner Madeleine Williams to beat Barnard and partner Annabelle Hodder 6-3 6-3.

Sutherland-smith continues to rise up the New Zealand rankings where she will now be likely ranked in the top-200 women.

Based on the current results it is conceivable that Sutherlandsmith may break into the top 100 by the end of the summer season.