Show of force by home brigade in mini-series
Top-class tennis action was in full swing recently as Tennis Buffalo City held its second mini-series tournament of the year at the Selborne Park tennis stadium and Clarendon Primary School.
Close to 90 players from around the country converged on East London for the Tennis South Africa ranking tournament, with some players travelling down from Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape to battle it out against the locals for the title.
In the end the East London locals dominated.
“Tennis Buffalo City would like to thank Buffalo City Metro municipality for ensuring that Selborne Park is well maintained during the tournament, and further a special thanks to Clarendon School for allowing us the usage of their tennis courts as all these efforts contributed to the success of this tournament,” said chairman of Tennis Buffalo City, Neil Naidoo.
In the men’s singles final, Dylan Smith repeated his triumph from the year’s first mini-series by dispatching Port Elizabeth’s Luke Stuart 6-0 6-1.
Smith and Avela Ndlabhu teamed up for the men’s doubles and won with a 6-1 6-1 victory over Emile du Preez and S J Marais in the final.
The women’s singles saw the talented Lente Taljaard account for the Marx sisters on her way to the title, beating Jessica 6-0 60 in the semi and then Emma 60 6-1 in the final.
The girls’ U16 played a roundrobin, and Caitlyn Zietsman beat Devina Pillay 6-4 7-6.
In the U16 boys’ section Joseph Townes came from a set down to claim the title 4-6 7-6 10-6 against Matthew Stuart.
The two finalists teamed up in the doubles and beat Bran- don Riesenberg and Emile Viljoen 6-3 6-4 in the final.
The girls’ U12 final once again saw Kesha Louw victorious over Zoey Scriven from Gauteng with a 6-1 6-2 victory.
Zahara Dreyer-Ferreira and Scriven teamed up to avenge their singles losses by beating Louw and Abigayel Vosloo 2-6 6-3 10-7 in the doubles finals.
The boys’ U12 section was divided into a Platinum and Gold section.
Luke Taylor was victorious in the gold section, beating Kyle van der Berg 6-4 6-2, while the Platinum section final was won by Christiaan Viljoen who beat Alexander Histov from Gauteng 6-7 6-0 10-8.
Viljoen together with Maksim Mihic won the doubles as well by beating Histov and Bergert van Heerden 6-1 6-3.
The U10 section girls’ section won by Camilla Heuer, who beat Mackenzie Goss, while the boys’ section was won by Conner Barnes, who beat Elijah van der Berg.
The boy double winners were Van der Berg and Liyima Lawrence, who beat Robert Marzo and Lwanda Kunju.
All these efforts contributed to the success of this tournament
Neil Naidoo