Trophies and Medals Galore

23rd Biondo Junior Grass Court Championships  |  Our annual trip to the grass courts of Cowichan proved to be fruitful. Our team of 9 juniors came back with numerous metallic souvenirs recently. In the absence of some of our older top club juniors, our younger team still enjoyed much success on this grass court tournament. Leading the way is our most experience and oldest junior player on this trip. Jedi Tetik, 17 returned once again with two pieces of hardware. A finalist once again in the boys under 18 singles, and he also triumphed in the boys under 18 doubles with Austin Nyugen from Beaverton, Oregon. In the singles final, Tetik was fantastic for the first set and a half. He led 6-2, 3-2 and a point away from a 4-2 lead, when a lapse of concentration did him wrong. His opponent, Duncan boy, Socrates Bousbouras sneaked right back into the match. In the third set, Tetik took an early 2-0 lead but could not sustain the momentum. Faced with a 4-5 decision, Tetik managed to level the set at 5-5, but that was all he can do to keep the match from his reach. He fell on his serve two games later with a final score of 6-2, 4-6, 5-7.

Giselle Bonney, 16, one of our four girls on this trip was the defending champion in the girls under 16 singles. She did really well in beating two Island girls, Lucy Ewart of Brentwood Bay, and Georgia Tomsett of Victoria in the round-robin matches. The match that she did not expect to lose was against Nina Radisavljevic of Victoria. She had beaten Radisavljevic last year in the same event but this time it was a reversal of fortune. The score was 6-1, 6-4. Radisavljevic was the event winner and Bonney brought home the runner-up trophy. Bonney and doubles partner, Ann Cleverley, a local player, narrowly missed receiving their runner-up trophies in the girls under 18 doubles round robin event.

The surprise of this trip was Sam Yan, 13, reaching the finals of the boys under 16 singles event. On the way to the final, he beat the number one seeded player, Vincent Didier of Victoria in three sets, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. The finals proved to be much tougher as he faced the boy from Beaverton, Oregon. Austin Nguyen won easily 6-3, 6-0. Yan also proved that his under 16 success was no fluke. He made an impression in the boys under 14 singles event as well. After winning two early round matches, he came up short against the number two seeded player, Aaron Diemer of Victoria. This was a match he should have won but he could not get his game together. Yan lost 6-2, 6-2.

Our two other representatives in the boys under 14 singles events were Kai Rados and Matthew Wong. Both players made early exit in the event. Rados lost to the number three seeded player, Nyles Moisson and Wong was beaten by the number two seed, Aaron Diemer. Rados managed to secure a finalist position in the consolation event. He was beaten by Victor Stepanov from Victoria.

We have three representatives in the girls under 12 singles events. Jayden Nielsen, and her younger sister Alexandra, and Jenny Jia are the promising young players from our junior program. Jia, 12, was the finalist in last year's event. This time Nielsen, 11, was the number one seeded player. Both girls met in the finals, and Nielsen romped through the finals in a quick fashion, with a 6-2, 6-0 score. The younger Nielsen lost 6-4, 6-4 to Clementine Chung of Victoria in a close first round match. Alexandra, who will turn 9 years old next month, won her consolation final when she beat a local player Chanelle Moisson 6-1, 6-1.

Jia was also entered in the girls under 14 singles. A defending champion from last year trip and seeded first, she suffered a surprise lost to Mateya Radisavljevic of Victoria. In the first round match she quickly move to a 3-0 lead only to have Radisavljevic come back in the next six games. In the second set, she settled back into her groove and won it easily. In the third set, the tide turned against her once more. She bowed out with a score of 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Jia redeemed herself in the consolation, by winning her final match 6-2, 6-4 against Julie Newton.

In the boys under 12 singles event, we have Jared MacLean representing our club. He was seeded number two. With the withdrawal of the number one seeded player Andre Sobati, he was the clear favourite to win this event and he did in a fashionable style in the finals. He beat Toni Dela Pena of Victoria without losing a game. His toughest match was in the semi-finals where he was extended into three sets against Aaron Diemer. He survived a tough 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 after being down 5-2 in the third set. Against the much taller Diemer, MacLean was trying to out-hit his opponent from the baseline. This proved to be an inefficient effort and fruitless attempt in winning points. When he was down 2-5 in the final set, he decided to change tactics and mixed his shots up. Point by point this worked in his favour and MacLean crawled back to take the set and match from Diemer.

MacLean was a double winner when he and doubles partner, Elom Paradis of Richmond won the boys under 14 doubles in style. They won all their three matches to take the under 14 title. Our other doubles team of Rados and Wong did not enjoy much success in this event.

At the end of tournament, we won 4 golds, 4 silvers, 1 bronze, 2 consolation golds and 1 consolation silver. It was a very good achievement for everyone on this team.