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Badenhorst reaches the final of the Samaai Junior Open in Pretoria

After putting up another fight in front of his home crowd, South African favourite Devin Badenhorst stumbled at the final hurdle at the Samaai Junior Open, an ITF Grade A tournament, at TuksTennis in Pretoria this past weekend.

August 16, 2022
Pretoria Rekord 1 minute read
Pretoria's young tennis star, Devin Badenhorst, showed again this past weekend that he is a man to watch for the future, when he reached the final of the Samaai Junior Open, an ITF Grade A tournament, at TuksTennis in Pretoria. Photos: Frennie Shivambu

Shortly after Pretoria’s young tennis star, Devin Badenhorst, won the Curro ITF Junior Grade 2 tournament at Curro Hillcrest in Durban two weeks ago and was thus able to claim his first ITF Grade 2 singles title, this past weekend in his home city he almost climbed a step higher on the tennis ladder.

After putting up another fight in front of his home crowd, Badenhorst stumbled at the final hurdle on Saturday, as he was edged out by French player Antoine Ghibaudo in the boys’ singles final.

Ghibaudo, the No 8 seed, overcame some real pressure in the opening set to earn a 7-6(5), 6-2 victory, adding the singles title to the doubles crown he had secured the day before with compatriot Paul Barbier Gazeu.

“It means a lot for me to win this tournament because in the ITF (International Tennis Federation) it’s one of the biggest tournaments, so I’m proud to have won,” Ghibaudo said. I’m also very happy to take revenge on Devin because he beat me two weeks ago. This was another close match but I think I managed it better than him this time,” he said after the game.

Earlier on the final day of the ITF Grade A tournament, in the girls’ singles final, top seed Sofia Costoulas of Belgium defeated unseeded Turkish player Melisa Ercan 7-5, 6-2.

Costoulas was delighted with the result as she continued to prove her potential as a future global star.

“This is my second Grade A title, and my first in South Africa, so I’m really happy to win today. It was a very good week for me,” Costoulas concluded.

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At Caxton, every story is written by humans. We use AI only to perform quality checks - never to generate the news. Happy reading!
August 16, 2022
Pretoria Rekord 1 minute read

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Koos Venter

Koos Venter is an experienced journalist who started his career 35 years ago, before the days of cellphones, modern computer systems, the internet and digital cameras, as a correspondent for Nexus, the former national magazine of the Department of Correctional Services. He has since worked for various other publications in all aspects of news coverage, as a columnist and in the production side of newspapers and online publications. Since 2007 he has specialized as a sports writer, while he is also regularly used as an analyst and commentator by several radio stations.
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