Pearson U15s shine at Michaelhouse tennis festival
The Pearson U15 boys’ tennis team flew the Eastern Cape flag high when they won the inaugural Visagie Cup hosted by Michaelhouse in the KZN Midlands last week.
Pearson High was the only school from the province competing in the tournament and the team went through the tournament undefeated against top quality opposition.
The action had been scheduled to start on May 19 but due to a constant downpour no tennis was possible on day one.
Pearson’s first opponents were Curro Hillcrest and both teams went hammer and tongs at each other, with a score of 3-3 after the singles.
The Gqeberha team showed their strength in the doubles, winning all three matches to take the tie 6-3.
In their next game against Michaelhouse A, Pearson proved too strong and eased to a 7-2 victory.
After finishing day two with an 8-0 victory over the hosts’ B team, Pearson were well placed in the round-robin going into the last three group fixtures.
The third day was filled with high quality tennis and as the sun melted the early morning ice off the grass, the action heated up on court.
Pearson took on Westville Boys High, who are a tennis powerhouse and the intensity of the matches definitely increased.
After recovering from significant deficits in three of the singles matches, Pearson took what at one stage seemed an unlikely lead as they went ahead 5-1. They then won two of the three doubles matches to claim a memorable 7-2 victory.
Helpmekaar Kollege from Johannesburg entered A and B teams, and they represented the final two fixtures of the pool stages for Pearson.
Both matches ended in hard-fought 3-3 draws and that was enough to seal a well-deserved top spot for Pearson after the group fixtures.
The final day saw warmer weather and the scene was set as Pearson and Helpmekaar A prepared to battle it out in the final. After a scoreline of 3-3 in the round-robin phase it was all to play for.
Pearson started strongly in the singles with wins in the top four positions to take a 4-0 lead.
Helpmekaar then fought back strongly with wins at five and six to whittle the lead down to 4-2 going into the doubles.
Strongly motivated to show what they could do, the Pearson boys again played phenomenal doubles to win two of the three matches to claim a famous 6-3 win.
This was the sixth tennis tournament Pearson teams have won in 2023.