Kearsney Tennis Tournament. Photo: Jack Badenhorst, SACS’ winner of the Any Willows Trophy, with Kearsney’s Patrick Lees and Sonia Cairns.

The past weekend’s annual Kearsney Tennis Tournament saw an exciting standard of tennis from the cream of the country’s competitive players. Paul Roos Gimnasium from Stellenbosch was the eventual winners.

The recipient of the Ant Willows Trophy was Jack Badenhorst from SACS. This was in recognition of outstanding sportsmanship as well as the spirit in which he played throughout the tournament.

Now in its 29^th year, the prestigious tournament was started in 1996 by Kearsney’s recently retired deputy headmaster Ant Willows. It is to showcase the strength of tennis amongst aspiring young South African players.

The weekend’s final results were winners Paul Roos Gimnasium. Second was Westville Boys, 3^rd Grey College (Bloemfontein), 4^th Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies in Pretoria), 5^th Kearsney College, 6^th SACS (Cape Town), 7^th St David’s Marist Inanda (Johannesburg) and 8^th Rondebosch Boys (Cape Town).

The following individual awards were also made. The best player at number 1 was Willem de Waal (Paul Roos Gim). The best number 2 Rhys Vorwerk (Westville), number 3 Xander Pienaar (Paul Roos Gim), number 4 Sean Wilson (Westville). Number 5 was Fourie Vermeulen (Grey College) and number 6 Sebastian Oosthuizen (Paul Roos Gim).

The players from Paul Roos Gymnasium who also ensured their win were Willem de Waal, Pieter Kotze, Xander Pienaar, Hanno Bouwer, Simeon Roothman, Sebastian Oosthuizen and Luke Verwey.

Hosts Kearsney’s team comprised Angus Fyvie, Jason Denekamp, Max East, Luca Gia-Minietti, Connor van Heerden, Troy Jorgensen and Noah Haskell.