Kiwi Beats Aussies In Their Own Tournament

Hawkes Bay tennis junior Finn Reynolds has this afternoon won the Australian 12u Spring Nationals tennis title played at Sydney’s Olympic Park Tennis Centre.

Reynolds, 12 who belongs to the Hawkes Bay club and is coached by Simon Winter had to win through qualifying before beating the fourth seed Joonky Nah(South Australia) 4-0 retired in the quarterfinals , then in the semifinals he accounted for top seed Alexander Crnokrak(Queensland) 4-6 7-5 6-0, saving two matches points in the process.

In the final he easily overcame the third seed, Stefan Norodom(South Australia) 6-2 6-3.

Reynolds is New Zealand’s top ranked boy in the 12u age group.

Kiwi juniors have done well in the Australian Spring Nationals of late with Wanganui’s Kyle Butters making the 14’s final last year.

The performance bodes well for Kiwi junior players especially following the good results of Wanganui 15-year-olds Butters and Paige Hourigan as well as  William Matheson(Auckland), 15 and Auckland’s Alex Klintcharov, 16 who competed strongly in tournaments in Holland recently including a grade two ITF doubles title to Hourigan.

TNZ ceo Steve Johns was delighted with the result and how there are players from all parts of New Zealand making an impact at junior level. 

“It’s good to see Finn come through and beat the Australians in their own events. He’s obviously got a lot of talent and there are also some other young players starting to make their mark. It’s also good to see players from across the whole country  putting in impressive results and competing hard against each other and overseas opponents too,” said Johns.