CAPTION: Tennis Coach Sachin Reddy receives the $2500 cheque from Courts Fiji Limited head of marketing Anil Senewiratne that was used in order to aid in the running of the tournament. Photo: SUPPLIED
By RAEVENN BREEN
Tennis has become a growing sport in Fiji ever since reaching a popular status during the Pacific Games held throughout the years.
The Courts Nadi Open Tennis Championships, sponsored by Courts Fiji Limited, was established last year and is planned to run for a further three years. During the tournament, which had come to an end on the 28th of July, 72 players had entered to play in the tournament, an increase in number compared to the 55 entries that last year’s competition saw.
Courts Fiji Limited presented a cheque valued at $2500.00FJD to the competition in order for the competition to run smoothly and provide the necessary equipment needed for players and the tournament officials. The money given by the company who were the sole sponsors of the tournament enabled a competition where young children and adults were able to play in a fair event, and also promoted the health and fitness of the young kids who played at the tournament.
There were a number of different age categories which were set in order to place the different participants competing into their own respective age groups. Categories ranged from the Open age category right down the Under-10’s age category. Certain categories also included social and mixed singles and doubles in order to boost the fun and the competition.
In the Men’s social singles category, Raynal Singh commanded the court and took home the spoils of victory, beating Krishan Raju in a 2-1 set victory, scoring 7-5, 1-6, 6-3. Ayana Rengiil aced the Women’s social singles category, beating Vienna Kumar to take the title. Rengiil flew in especially from the tiny island nation of Palau to participate in the Courts-sponsored tournament after hearing about the event last year.
The Under-16’s category was a particularly exciting group to watch, where future tennis-stars battled it out against one another to win the title. Junior Benjamin and Terry Rush played fierce tennis in the Final on the court, but an injury to Rush saw Benjamin win the match, playing only two sets with a score of 6-3 5-2.
Overall, the tournament was won by the Nadi Sports and Social Club’s very own Tarani Kamoe, beating TJ Rush from the Federated States of Micronesia in a tight match, scoring 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (5).
Sachin Reddy, the Tournament Director, said it’s wonderful that Courts Fiji Limited helped towards supporting a minor sport like Tennis and give back to the community like the Nadi Sports and Social Club members and in addition to the financial commitment they made, they also donated magnificent trophies and gave a heart-felt speech encouraging and motivating youths to be active in sports and in the community.
Although the competition has come to an end, the last match of the competition, the Open Doubles Final is set to be played on the 3rd of August at 4.00pm at the Nadi Sports and Social Club.
Both the Nadi Sports and Social Club and Tennis Fiji are looking forward to the continued support from Courts Fiji Limited in order to run the event in years to come.
Caption: The junior tennis players who took part in the tournament. Photo: SUPPLIED
Tournament Results:
Under 10s Group A: Winner (Maui) Runners-up (Lachlan Guba) Score: 10-4
Under 10s Group B: Winner (Tisha Vinod) Runners-up (Kevin Kapadia) Score: 10-8
Under 13s Singles: Winner (Vienna Kumar) Runners-up (Ben Littlejohn) Score: 6-2 6-0
Under 13s Doubles: Winner (Ben/Shyaam) Runner-up (Sam/Vishal) Score: 8-6
Under 16s Singles: Winner (Junior Benajamin) Runner-up (Terry Rush) Score: 6-3 5-2 injury
Under 16s Doubles: Winner (Graham/Laitasi) Runner-up (Patrick/Shivneel) round-robin
Mens Social Singles: Winner (Raynal Singh) Runners-up (Krishan Raju) Score: 7-5 1-6 6-3
Mens/Ladies Social Doubles: Winner (Sumeet/Shoneet) Runners-up (Rakesh/Raynal) round-robin
Ladies Social Singles: Winner (Ayana Rengiil) Runners-up (Vienna Kumar)
Mens/Ladies Open Singles: Winner (Tarani Kamoe) Runners-up (Terry Rush) Score: 2-6 6-4 7-6 (5)