Arili proves she’s made of sterner stuff
Arili Boshoff of Hoërskool Nelspruit has been extremely busy on the tennis court since December, and her time on it has proven to be fruitful, even against tough competition from across the globe.
The first tournament of the summer came when Arili travelled to Cape Town to play in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Curro J5 tournament.
These ITF tournaments are the starting point for junior players under 18 across the world to compete against one another and establish their world rankings. Not having a junior ranking yet, Arili had to play in the qualifying tournament in order to reach the main draw. In the first round of qualifying, she played against Carla Dannhauser from George, and won 7/5 6/4.
The second round proved to be a more challenging occasion against a local player, Makhosazana Stewart, whom Arili defeated 6/3 3/6 10/2. In the last round of qualifying, she faced the Nigerian number nine, Chizitem Okonjo. After trailing 4/1 in the first set, the Nigerian turned the tables and won the set 7/5. Arili went down 5/4, and with three match points facing her at 40/0, she fought back hard. After salvaging the set 7/5, Arili won the third set 10/8. The first round of the main draw was an easier affair against Karla Grobbelaar.
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Arili won 6/3 6/0. The second round, however, proved too much for the NHS 15-year-old against the third-seeded Lucy Webber from England, 2/6 7/5 3/6. Tournament number two was the Growthpoint Super 8 in Gauteng East in December, where Arili had a convincing run to the finals, beating Luise Janse van Rensburg from Bloemfontein 6/1 7/5 along the way, before falling to South African number three, Tayla Wilmot, 6/4 6/0. The next Growthpoint Super 8 was in January in Gauteng North. After losing a close semi-final to Kaitlyn Ramduth from KwaZulu-Natal,
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Arili finished third by defeating Ashtyn Cason, also from KZN, 6/4 6/1. Arili’s last tournament of the summer season ended this week in Durban at the J5 ITF, where she won her first round of the main draw 6/2 6/3 against Amahle Fihlela, before losing 6/2 6/1 to the number-one seed, Leigh van Zyl.
“These past two months have been a great learning experience for Arili, especially against some top juniors from around the world,” said her coach, Eckhardt van der Linde. “Hopefully this shows all our Lowveld tennis players that they are capable of competing with the best in the country.”
