Lowveld tennis players recently represented Mpumalanga at the SA Schools Interprovincial Tennis Tournament.

Seventeen of them competed in Bloemfontein and Pretoria. This is the premier schools event on the South African tennis calendar every year. Participants played singles, doubles and mixed doubles during the weekend, which featured many highly ranked players from around the country.

The four u/13s in the team were Gabriella Koekemoer, Danielle Lombard, Yusuf Asvat and Christian Smith. They played against Gauteng North, Gauteng Central and Western Cape invitiational teams. During the round robin format, there were some good individual results, but the team unfortunately went down to Gauteng North and Central but beat Western Cape Invitational. In the play-off stages, they had an outstanding victory against KwaZulu-Natal, which meant that they finished 10th overall.

The eight u/15 players were Arili Boshoff, Lize Oosthuizen, Natasha Wales, Nolizwi Mlangeni, JP Visagie, Michiel Eksteen, Dian Venter and Khush Mheta. They finished ninth overall, an improvement on last year’s result of 14th. Hoërskool Nelspruit’s Arili, in particular, performed well, winning five out of six singles matches in the number-one position.

She beat South Africa’s number-nine-ranked u/14 Erin Mackenzie of Gauteng East and number-17-ranked Annika Kleinhans of Eastern Cape during the weekend. Nolizwi of Penryn College, and Dian, of Hoërskool Nelspruit, won all of their matches in the number-five position.

A highlight of the weekend was the match against Gauteng East, a nail-biting affair with the result decided by the last mixed doubles match played by Nolizwi and Dian. Their win clinched the tie for Mpumalanga and secured the best ever result for a Mpumalanga u/15 team.

The five u/19 players were Lize van Biljon, Beulah Alberts, Japie Lubbe, Muhammed Arabi and Divyesh Daya. The team finished in the top eight for the second year in a row. Hoërskool Rob Ferreira’s Divyesh won four singles matches in the number-six position while Japie, of NHS, and Muhammed, of Hoërskool Bergvlam, both won three singles matches over the weekend.

The team produced an outstanding result by beating Eastern Cape 34 points to 14. Japie, partnering with Zander Fourie of Standerton, achieved a memorable win in the number two doubles position against KwaZulu-Natal’s top-20 ranked pair featuring Alex Edley and Sashen Thirboan.

Eckhardt van der Linde, Lowveld Junior Tennis chairman and u/19 team manager said, “The fact that all three teams finished in the top 10 for the first time shows that Mpumalanga junior tennis is improving year by year.

“Each player represented themselves and the province with pride and competed well against tough opponents. I am looking forward to players working hard during the year so we can try and improve these results in 2020.”

Several players continued to Bloemfontein to compete individually at the TSA Junior Nationals. Some notable results were achieved, including Arili, who defeated South Africa’s number-one ranked u/14 player, Mikayla Faure, in the round of 16, on her way to finishing seventh overall.

Daar is geen keer aan die Nellies nie