This past weekend saw an exciting return to Tennis South Africa (TSA) tournaments, with the Lowveld Junior Tennis Association hosting Mbombela’s only TSA event for 2020. The three-day TSA Lowveld Spring Tournament was well supported by local and interprovincial players, attracting 100 competitors across age groups ranging from u/10, to men’s and women’s open.

Matches took place at Nelspruit and Panorama clubs, and Penryn College.

“This tournament was originally scheduled to be held in Secunda, but it was moved to Mbombela due to a lack of facilities in Secunda due to Covid-19 regulations.

“Therefore, we were extremely happy with the high number of players who entered, especially with all the last-minute changes,” said Lowveld Juniors chairperson, Eckhardt van der Linde.

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In the girls’ u/10 category, Lowveld local Simoné Swart narrowly edged North West’s Elmien Geertsema 6-4 to take the title. On the boys’ side, Julian Middel also managed to fly the Lowveld flag high, with a very close 7-6 win over Adriaan du Plessis from Limpopo in the final.

The boys’ u/12 draw saw two unseeded players from Limpopo in the final, namely Wian du Plessis and Blake Bekker. Wian proved victorious with a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

On the girls’ side, Ava Contomathios from KwaZulu-Natal won her maiden TSA title with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 victory against Middelburg’s Hestie Wheeler.

In the girls’ u/14 draw there were also two unseeded players in the final, both from the Lowveld. Joslin Boshoff prevailed in a close contest against Chané Steyn, 7-5, 6-4.

On the boys’ side, local JP Snyman narrowly lost to Gauteng North’s number-two seed Rynard van der Laan, 6-3, 5-7 and 8-10.

Conrad Beneke from Gauteng North took the boys’ u/16 title with a 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 nail-biter against the Lowveld’s Christian Smith, the match finishing just before Sunday’s heavy rain came down.

Hoërskool Nelspruit’s Arili Boshoff tore through the women’s singles draw, beating Secunda’s Chizelle Rossouw 6-2, 6-0 in the final.

Also completed only just before rain delayed the rest of the tournament, was court 1’s battle between 14-year-olds Jovan Lubbe and Schalk Schutte. Schalk fought back after losing the second set, to claim the victory 6-2, 5-7, 11-9.

“Unfortunately the doubles events were unable to be completed due to inclement weather, but Lowveld Juniors would like to thank sponsors Wilson, i’langa Mall, Luka and Andeon Visagie, Joel Masuku and Teddy Ndlazi for contributing to the success of this event,” said Van der Linde.