History was made earlier this month when tennis fans in the Moot area of Pretoria were able to experience an official International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament on their own front porch for the very first time ever.

The J3 Pretoria, an ITF Junior Grade three tournament, was presented at Rietondale Tennis Club. Over 60 players from across the globe took part in the event where they were looking for points in order to improve their ITF rankings.

Unfortunately, foreign players reigned supreme during the tournament and none of the South African participants managed to make it to any of the finals.

In the boy’s singles final, Moroccan second seed Aissa Benchekroun defeated unseeded Namibian Codie Schalk van Schalkwyk 6-3; 6-4 to win the title.

In the girl’s finals, Nigerian second seed Barakat Quadre beat unseeded Nahia Berecoechea from France 6-2; 6-3 to lift the girl’s trophy.

South Africa’s hopefuls were edged out of the tournament earlier in the week. The country’s last man standing in the singles event, Damien Nezar, was bundled out of the competition on the penultimate day of the action, after going down to Benchakroun.

Nezer lost 6-2; 6-2 to Benchakroun in the first semi-final match, setting the stage for the Moroccan second seed to battle it out for top honours with Codie Schalk van Schalkwyk of Namibia, who beat fourth seed Elyes Marouani of Tunisia in the second.

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