Southern View: January 29, 2019

12
Bid to boost
number of tennis
tournaments
Tuesday January 29 2019
THE CASHMERE Tennis
Club will host one of Tennis
New Zealand’s new money
tournaments being launched to
boost the number of competitive
tournaments on the national
calendar.
Kiwi Money Tournaments will
launch next month with six pilot
events. The new tournaments
will offer $2000 in prize money
per event. The men’s draw will
have up to a 32-strong qualifying
field starting on Fridays and a
24-strong main draw starting
Saturday. The women’s draw will
start with a 24-strong main draw
field.
“Every successful tennis
nation has a highly competitive
tournament pathway. New
Zealand was missing an all-year
tournaments circuit where junior,
casual and pro players could
compete against each other. These
tournaments are the perfect step
towards a complete tournament
calendar in New Zealand,” said
Tennis New Zealand performance
coach Christophe Lambert.
Cashmere will host the last of
the six tournaments from March
29-31. The other venues holding
tournaments from late February
are North Shore, Auckland,
Hamilton, Blenheim and Timaru.
The winners of the tournaments
will receive $600 in prize money,
with defeated finalists receiving
$300. Semi-finalists will receive
$50.
First national title for Cashmere youngster
RUBY YOUNG teamed up
with Auckland’s Sasha Situe
to win the girls doubles title at
the 12U New Zealand Junior
Championships at Wilding Park
last week.
The 12-year-old Cashmere
player and Sasha were more
than worthy of their No 1 seeding
dropping just three games
in their opening two matches.
In the semi-final they defeated
the all-Christchurch pairing of
Emma Mason and Tatum Falck
6-2,6-3.
In the final they met No 3
seeds and the all Auckland
pairing of Aisha Das and Renee
Zhang. Ruby and Sasha had a
crucial late break to win the
opening set 7-5. The second set
was an even tighter affair going
to a tiebreaker which they won
8-6 to win 7-5, 7-6(6).
“It was really exciting and
nerve-racking, but my partner
[Sasha] was really supportive,”
said Ruby.
In singles Ruby defeated fellow
Cashmere player Lucia Gale 6-4,
6-1 in the first round. She then
accounted for Ruth Baantarawa
from New Caledonia 6-1, 6-2
before falling to no 4 seed Maria
Galatescu 5-7, 4-6 in a tight
quarter-final.
It was the second close
encounter Ruby had had with
Ruth during the week. The two
met at the teams tournament
played before the 12U New
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
COMPETITIVE: Ruby Young (far left) and Sasha Situe (centre left) won the national 12 and under
girls doubles title by defeating Aisha Das (centre right) and Renee Zhang.
Zealand Junior Championships
which resulted in ruby losing
6-1, 2-6, 7-10 in a third set supertiebreaker.
Ruby – who plays in Cashmere’s
premier women’s interclub
team – began playing at the
age of seven and is coached by
her father Greg Young who is
a former premier interclub
player.
She will begin her first year at
St Margaret’s College shortly on
a sports scholarship. Ruby is also
a rep level football and plays for
Cashmere Technical.
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