The St Mary’s tennis players have been very busy participating in tournaments and practising all around the world and in South Africa over the past few weeks.

Congratulations to our new tennis captain for the 2017/2018 season, Maja Gledic, on her excellent performances in the singles and doubles events of the ITF tournaments recently held at the Wanderers Club and in Pretoria. Maja won the singles of the ITF U18 tournament at the Wanderers and lost in the semi-finals of the singles in the Pretoria U18 ITF. Maja, along with her partner, won the doubles title at the Pretoria tournament. As a result of these excellent performances, Maja is now currently ranked number three in the U18 age group in South Africa which is an awesome achievement.

Tamsin Hart travelled to Spain to practice at a tennis academy in Mallorca and also played a match at the Rafael Nadal Academy. Tamsin was extremely impressed by all the facilities at the Nadal Academy and cannot wait for the St Mary’s tennis tour to Spain next year.

After reaching the finals of the singles in the Gauteng East U14 event in Benoni, Sarah Millard travelled with her coach and a few other players to play in three tournaments held in Germany on clay courts. It was extremely hot in Germany and the opposition was tough but Sarah loved playing on clay and found the whole trip an amazing learning experience, on and off the court.

Tamsin Hart and Alexis Tensfeldt flew to Mauritius to participate in two U18 ITF tournaments. The two young players fended for themselves and did extremely well in reaching the finals of the doubles in the last event. Once again, many life lessons were learnt on and off the court.

Congratulations to Amukelani Mokone for being chosen to play for an Invitational U16 South African team, which participated in the International Club Challenge. Amukelani’s team played in a quadrangular tournament, which included Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Nina Patience participated in a tournament in Middelburg and came second in the Open section.

Good luck to all the players with the new season on the tennis courts. The tennis matches start next Tuesday.

René Plant
Head of tennis