There was an enormous amount of tennis talent on display in Narrabri on Sunday when Dangar Park Tennis Centre hosted some of the region’s brightest young players for the first of two RMS events to be held in town this year.
The third Regional Matchplay Series event on North West Tennis’ calendar attracted more than 90 players, who braved the hot conditions to produce some entertaining matches following successful events in both Inverell and Gunnedah last month.
There were 18 courts in use across the day, 16 of which were at the local tennis centre.
St Francis Xavier’s Primary School and Narrabri West Public School also hosted matches on one court each.
Narrabri Tennis head coach Shane Murphy was the tournament director at the event and ran it well.
North West Tennis described it as a “great day”, and Murphy said that he certainly agreed.
“It was a really good day,” Murphy said.
“We ended up with 91 players and 18 courts, so there was a lot of tennis happening.
“There was good tennis displayed by everyone and the sportsmanship on every court seemed pretty high.
“Everyone had fun and everyone was saying how good it is to come to Narrabri.
“The temperature was quite hot and we’d been sent an email from Tennis Australia the day before telling us we had to keep our eyes on a couple of temperatures. If it got to a specific temp, I had to suspend play, so I was hoping that wouldn’t happen and it didn’t happen, so that was good.
“Tournaments like these are super important as they are the next step from coaching alone and playing club championships or in school events.
“Tournament play is an ongoing learning experience.
“You’re always up against a different opponent, so you’ve got to adapt how you’re playing and also keep working on what you’ve been working on.
“It’s part of the development, so it’s sensational.”
Murphy and North West Tennis commended the efforts of members of the Narrabri and District Tennis Association who helped make the day a success.
There were plenty of players from the Narrabri Shire in action on the day and three local players secured top-two finishes. They were Narrabri Tennis trio Charlotte Murphy, Callum Wales and Jack Hartnett.
Callum was crowned champion of the 16-years boys division. There were four players in that division, and he defeated the other three.
Jack placed second in that division and the only match that he lost was against Callum.
Charlotte competed in the 10-years girls division and placed second after going down in a close final.
She prevailed in four of her five pool matches to reach the semi-final, which she won in a tie-breaker.
Her matches were all first to four games, and after a quick turn around following the semi-final tiebreak, she found herself down 3-0 in the final against Armidale’s Olivia O’Neill.
Charlotte resiliently fought back and made the game-score 3-all to force another tiebreak, but Olivia won it to claim a 4-3 victory.
Narrabri Tennis’ head coach said he was pleased with the way that all of his players competed on the day, and also commended Callum, Jack and Charlotte for their top-two finishes.
“Callum and Jack looked like they were having some good battles out there,” Murphy, said.
“It is a little bit tougher when you have a small draw. Sometimes it can be a little bit hard, mentally, to get up for it.
“But they looked like they were smacking some good balls out there and they just played what was on the court in front of them. They had to, because they had three tough matches to get through.
“Charlotte’s 10-years girls, for the first time this year, had two pools.
“There were 10 players in total and they were divided up into seeded and unseeded pools, and they were the last event to finish as they had more tennis to get through than they were used to, so it was a different challenge for those players involved.
“Charlotte looked like she was having a great day and she was hitting the ball nicely.
“As a coach, you’re always looking for things to improve on, but overall it was a very good performance.”
Some other positive results for local Narrabri Tennis players saw Alistair Dowdell place third in the 16-years boys, Sophie Hartnett finish third overall in the 14-years girls, Anna Murphy qualify for the second round of the playoffs in the 10-years girls, Lucas Dowdell reach the first round of the finals in the 12-years boys, Matilda Murphy play her way into the first round of finals in the 12-years girls, and Charlie Butler make it to the first round of finals in the 14-years boys.
A full list of winners and runners-up at the event is as follows:
Open men:
Winner – Matthew Rouse.
Runner-up – Zach Adams.
16-years boys:
Winner – Callum Wales.
Runner-up – Jack Hartnett.
14-years boys:
Winner – Darcy Bissell.
Runner-up – Samuel Savovski.
14-years girls:
Winner – Trista Dorrian.
Runner-up – Sophie Neilsen.
12-years boys:
Winner – Dejan Djulic.
Runner-up – Eddie Martin.
12-years girls:
Winner – Kaylee Woolcott.
Runner-up – Zoe Savovski.
10-years boys:
Winner – Harry Tudgey.
Runner-up – Buddy Ryan.
10-years girls:
Winner – Olivia O’Neill.
Runner-up – Charlotte Murphy.
8-years boys:
Winner – Lachlan Finnerty.
Runner-up – Jakob Schneebeli.
8-years girls:
Winner – Millie Lyle.
Runner-up – Nina Martin.
