Stellenbosch, South Africa – It was pretty much smooth sailing for the top seeds on day one of the SAS Junior ITF 1 tennis tournament held at the Coetzenburg courts in Stellenbosch.
For some players the heat was the biggest challenge, while most of the matches were tightly contested affairs.
JD Malan and Lee Barnard both won their matches in the first round in two sets. Malan – boys’ first seed – won the first set easily against Bulgaria’s Nikolai Manchev, but had to up his game to win the second 7-5 in a heated battle. Barnard had no troubles swiping Nicola Steenkamp off court with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Third seed Nadine de Villiers also won without breaking too much of a sweat by beating Lienkie van der Merwe 6-1, 6-1. Lee’s twin sister and second seed, Zani also had an easy game against fellow South African Mandri Viljoen winning 6-0, 6-3.
Other top seeds in the boys’ draw Damon Kesaris (RSA, 2), Rossouw Norval (RSA, 3) and Giles Hussey (GBR, 4) are all through to round two. The highest seeded player to lose was sixth seeded Maximilliam Grobbelaar who lost against Joshua Howard-Tripp.
Picture credit: Eunice Visagie
