Hriday Kambaran produced some scintillating ball striking to win the Umtentweni Tennis Club singles championships last Saturday. The lanky 16 year-old showed some incredible agility and court coverage against his more seasoned opponent Darral Pillay, who is now the ripe old age of 42.
Hriday took the first set 6-1 but Darral made him work for the second set, which the youngster eventually took in a tie-breaker. It was great match to watch and Hriday was, as always, humble in victory.
Darral didn’t have too much time to reflect as he had a doubles game with his brother Trevor against senior pros Ian Ackerman and Johan van Niekerk. The brothers were able to successfully defend their title in two sets.
In the ladies’ singles Robyn Olivant edged out Cheryse Wikstrom in an epic battle played in wonderful spirit. Robyn took the first set 6-1 but lost the second set 6-3. She raced away to a 4-0 lead in the third, but Cheryse refused to give up. She got it back to 4-2, before Robyn won the next game to make it 5-2. Cheryse made it 5-3 and then saved three match points on Robyn’s serve to see the score go to 5-4.
However, Robyn then won the first three points of the next game to set up three match points. Cheryse saved yet another match point, before Robyn finally clinched the win with a volley to end a long rally. The players hugged at the net, and then sat in their chairs for quite some time, resting and waiting for the colour in their faces to return to normal.
RESULTS
Men’s singles:
Hriday Kambaran beat Darral Pillay 6-1, 7-6.
Plate: Trevor Pillay w/o Raj Naganna.
Ladies’ singles:
Robyn Olivant beat Cheryse Wikstrom 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
Men’s doubles:
Darral Pillay and Trevor Pillay beat Ian Ackerman and Johan van Niekerk.
Plate winners were Raj Naganna/Herman Ehlers.
Round robin (for those who didn’t have a partner for the mixed) was won by Naren Sunker and Morgan Reddy.
Ladies’ doubles:
Cheryse Wikstrom and Sharon van der Schyff were the winners of the round robin format.
Runners-up were Natasha Cotterell and Chantelle Donald.
Mixed doubles:
Winners were Darral Pillay and Sharon van der Schyff after finalists Bjorn Wikstrom (partnered by his wife Cheryse) had to withdraw due to injury.
Plate: Trevor Pillay and Robyn Olivant beat André Hofman and Natasha Cotterell.
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