• Tennis development given a major boost in Potchefstroom
Potchefstroom, South Africa – The future of South African tennis looks promising after a top display of tennis was on show at the inagural Growthpoint Junior Masters which ended at the Riaan Venter Tennis Academy on the NWU-PUKKE camps in Potchefstroom on Sunday.
There was also a boost for tennis transformation when Kholo Montsi of Pretoria and Kelly Arends of Cape Town won their respective titles in the under 16 and under 14 age groups.
Fourth seeded Montsi needed two sets to beat Robbie Arendse of Western Province, 6-2 6-4 in his under 16 final whilst Robbie’s younger sister Kelly lost only two games in trouncing Christine Kruger of Free State 6-1 6-1 in her under 14 final. Kelly was in fine form having not lost a set throughout the tournament.
Boland’s Carl Roothman, the boys under 14 fourth seed upset top seed Devan Badenhorst of Gauteng North 6-0 7-5 in his final.
Delien Kleinhans of Free State made an impressive comeback to tournament play after a string of injuries when she shocked top seeded Myah Petchey of Western Province 6-1 6-1 in the under 16 girls final.
The under 18 boys singles went to the inform Phillip Henning of Free State. Tournament favourite Henning was too strong for Siphos Montsi of Gauteng North winning 6-3 6-2. This is the eighth tournament on the trot that the 17-year-old Henning has won. Henning captured six back-to-back international junior titles, the South African Junior Nationals and this weekend’s Masters title.
The girls under 18 final went to Lize-Alet Morkel who needed three sets to beat Megan Lombardi 6-1 6-7 (5) 6-1 in the all Boland final.
The boys and girls under 12 titles were won by Jordan Georgiev of Gauteng Central and Mikayla Faure of Gauteng North respectively.