7 / 20
2
016 NSTA Junior Championships
were played over 6 weekends,
plus Finals Day, during February and
March. Round robin singles and doubles
were played on Saturday afternoons or
Saturday evenings in 10s and 12s, and
this year for the first time, an 8 & Under
singles, boys and girls, was held.
176 players entered the tournament,
up slightly on last year, which generated
200 events entries. Numbers in each
age group increased, but very
disappointingly, the only girls doubles
we could hold was 10s. 10s and 12s
doubles were played as round robins
on one Saturday evening, when players
were also treated to pizza.
The whole tournament was played
in a wonderful spirit and it is very re-
warding for the Association to see such
a great turn out of so many of our young,
keen juniors who display a great loyalty
to the Association. We were blessed
with great weather and it was wonderful
to see parents attending each week to
witness the matches.
Congratulations to all winners and
runners up, and in particular to
Hikaru
Ikegami
who took out both the 18 and
16 boys singles.
Pedro Papangelis
showed his huge improvement in taking
out the 14 boys singles and
Abby
Latimer
had a tough final against
Sophia Thorne
to win the 10 girls
singles.
The introduction of 8 & Under boys
and girls round robin singles was an
interesting initiative, and particularly
to see how ‘savvy’ the majority of the
boys were. We saw 2 wonderful finals
on Finals Day in these events with
Miles Phijidvjan
overcoming
Jioh Kim
6-2 and
Ruby Thompson
defeating
Beatrice Bayley
6-5 (5).
All finals were played on Finals
Day, 20th March, and the Presentation
was combined with the NSTA
Championships. The combining of
junior and grade finals provided a great
audience for these little champions to
play in front of, and allowed them the
acknowledgement that they deserve.
Melissa Anderson
, 14 times NSTA
ladies champion, was on hand at the
Presentation to congratulate the winners
and runners up, and to hand over the
perpetual trophies that she herself won
on many occasions durng her junior
years in NSTA.
To everyone who took part in
the NSTA Junior Championships,
congratulations on your demeanour and
behaviour. We have some wonderful
juniors within our Association and we
look forward to following their progress.
COURT
TALK -
WINTER 2016
PAGE 7
NSTA
JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHPS
(From left)
Miles Phijidvjan, Isaac Chen,
Thomas Garrett, Abby Latimer, Leroy Sze
and
Ruby Thompson
(Left)
8s
champions
Ruby
Thompson
and
Miles
Phijidvjan
(right)
14s
champion
Pedro
Papanagelis
and 18s and
16s champion
Hikaru
Ikegami