Juniors shine at Florida Park Tennis Club tournament
Florida Park Tennis Club proud to be reviving the game among young players
True development is a guiding hand up every step of the ladder.
The youth is where the stars of tomorrow exist and Florida Park Tennis Club (FPTC) is at the fore of the future. The historic club hosted a junior knockout tournament open to all players between the age of eight and 16 on November 20. Players from across Gauteng made the journey for the all-day Saturday event, with players from as far away as Springs making up the over 50 player field.
The tournament featured two categories, a hard ball section for the more serious competitors, and a green dot division for those just finding their feet on the court. Male and female players were thrown into the mix together as the knockout format whittled the field down to the final four in each category by midday. Ensuring each player got sufficient time on court, playoff matches would award places all the way into the twenties.
Emerging the best of the beginners was William Radford who beat Rico Henning in his semi-final before claiming the trophy against Vultharhi Bvuma. Standing tall in the hard ball section was Reuben Smith, who defeated Keitumetsi Khumalo in the semis before being pushed all the way by Jordan Haynes. Earlier, Jordan had come through an epic tie-break decider with Ebrahim Mohamed but unfortunately couldn’t repeat the feat, with Reuben taking gold with a 10–8 tie break final win.
This was the first time in almost a decade FPTC had hosted an event of this size and they would hope to build on the momentum to become a hub of youth development.
“The quality of tennis on the day was good; we had a few matches very tightly contested and there was a good atmosphere among all the kids, even after those closely contested matches,” said tournament director, Kyle Jackman.
“We believe that tennis can grow and excel in our country if the game is played the way it was on Saturday. Our club feels privileged and honoured to have had this many entries and we hope to double that number with the next one,” said FPTC event coordinator, Adéle Bronkhorst. With a vision and purpose, a return to being a factory of excellence is on the horizon.
