Nina Pieterse claimed a straight sets victory against Giana Smith to win the girls’ U14 title at the Gauteng East mini tennis tournament at the GETA complex in Lakefield on April 21.
Pieterse took control of the match from the first game in the first set. Clearly untroubled by Smith, she dropped only one game in the set to win it 6-1.
She came out guns blazing in the second, taking the set with a clean sweep to win the match 6-1, 6-0.
Felicia Ouko claimed the tournament bronze after a straight set 6-4, 6-2 win over Liyabukwa Magigaba in the third-place play-off.
Shabaddeep Nanra beat Nkazimulo Sigasa for the fifth and sixth play-offs while Katie Doyer claimed a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Annemie Roux in the seventh and eighth play-off.
Taheem Ahmad won the men’s singles gold medal match with a one-sided 6-2, 6-1 victory over Morgan Vester in the final.
Vester got into the match after a hard-fought 7-5, 6-0 win over Constantine Covary in the semi-finals.
Taheem was tested by Almand Ahmed. He rallied from a set down to win the match 0-6, 7-6 (5), 13-11 to qualify for the final.
Almand grabbed the bronze medal after beating Covary 6-2, 6-0 in the third-place play-off.
In other matches, Kuhle Gcilitshana claimed the U12 girls’ gold after winning her tough battle against Camilla Seetso 5-7, 6-4, 10-5 while Regina Zibowa claimed the U16 girls’ gold. She recovered from a set down to beat Priya Naidoo 3-6, 6-2, 11-9.
Athena Denny took the bronze with a walkover in the third-place play-off.
The full tournament results are available at https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/2024043-Gauteng-East-Mini-1.
The Tennis South Africa-sanctioned tournament began on April 20 and concluded the following day. It attracted large numbers, with all courts packed on both days.
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