The city’s lawn tennis courts have emerged as one of the stars of the Warrnambool Junior and AMT Tournament held this week.
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Tournament organiser Jake Dunn praised the state of the Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club courts.
“Ross (Corbett) has done an amazing job with the courts, they are always in great condition,” Dunn said.
“Having the courts in such great shape helps drive the standard of the tennis to a high level.
“We have a lot of players come down from Melbourne and also from interstate including Tasmania, New South Wales and South Australia.”
The finals of the tournament were played on Sunday and Monday.
Local winners included Eloise Swarbrick in the women’s doubles and Danielle Warren in the 16 and under girls.
The senior men’s AMT final was won by Aaron Leeder-Chard, who defeated Jeremy Taylor in the final 7-6, 6-1. Leeder-Chard also won the mixed doubles final, pairing with Ksenija Varesanovic to defeat Mary Ann Liu and Gerard Di Paolo 6-1.
Liu bounced back to finish as the women’s champion, defeating Kristen Antonopoulos 6-2, 6-2 in the final.
Antonopoulos didn’t leave empty handed, having teamed with Swarbrick in the women’s doubles.
It was a similar story for the men’s runner-up, Jeremy Taylor, who paired with his brother Alexander to defeat Wesley George Neylon and Harry Boyd 6-1, 6-3 in the final.
While he didn’t win the title, the tournament was a successful one for Boyd, a 17-year-old right-hand player who lives in Woodford and plays and trains regularly at the Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club courts.
As well as making the doubles final, Boyd made the quarter-finals in the singles.
“It was the first time I have made a doubles final in an AMT event so I was pretty happy with that,” Boyd said.
“I like playing on the Warrnambool courts, I am always having a hit there so that helps.”
Boyd has little time to rest up, with a trip to Bendigo to play in the regional titles on the way later this week.
Dunn said the strong performance from local players was a considerable feat, given the quality of the fields in each grade.
“It is a really good standard of tennis and it gives the local players something to aim for,” Dunn said.
“This is actually the second highest level of junior competition you can play in Australia so that shows just how good a tournament it is.”
Other winners included Enzo Aguiard (16 and under boys), Cooper Errey (14 and under boys), Mia Tsoukalas (14 and under girls), Christian Salmeron (12 and under boys) and Sarah Birchall (12 and under girls).