Curro Hillcrest J300 falls foul of Mother Nature
Despite a week filled with exceptional tennis from some of the finest junior boys’ and girls’ players around the world, the weather ultimately dictated the outcome of the J300 International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tournament, held at Curro Hillcrest, which ended on Saturday, 21 September.
The event, sanctioned by Tennis South Africa and supported by Curro Holdings, followed in the footsteps of last week’s J200 tournament at the same venue, in which South Africa’s Connor Doig won the boys’ competition, while Mayaan Laron triumphed over compatriot Mika Buchnik in an all-Israeli girls’ final
A cold spell, with plenty of rain, threw a spanner in the works, despite the best efforts of the organisers to maintain the J300 event’s momentum and stick to the schedule.
Ahead of the last day of competition, the team focussed on advancing the competition to the semi-final rounds of the boys’ and girls’ singles and doubles events. Mother Nature, though, had the final say and the matches were unable to be completed.
“It’s out of our hands as we cannot control the weather, but we have to appreciate the importance of this event, the calibre of players we have, and their commitment to travelling from around the world to be here to further their careers,” commented Jared Temlett, the Project Manager at Curro Sport.
“Our role is to ensure they have the opportunity to play and showcase their skills and it’s a massive disappointment to have to eventually call the tournament at this late stage.”
Temlett and his team had play extending well into the night on numerous occasions throughout the week as they resorted to matches played under floodlights. It was like a magician calling on all his tricks and prowess to ensure the show went on.
With no possibility of play being carried over to Sunday due to many of the players having to travel, it came down to the singles semi-finals, which scheduled the number-one seed Anna Maria Fedotova (Dominican Republic) against the J200 champion Maayan Laron (Israel) and Britain’s Flora Johnson, the third-seed, facing J200 losing finalist Mika Buchnik (Israel), the number-two 2 seed, in the girls’ draw.
For the boys, it was Allan Gatato (Burundi), seeded sixth, up against Kohshi Ishibashi (Japan), and Nikolai Barsukov (Germany), the fifth seed, facing Kriish Tyagi (India), the fourth seed.
After waiting all day on Saturday for an opportunity to get onto court, play became possible only at 20:00 that evening and rain still threatened. With one match deep into the first set and another barely started, officials and players had to dash for cover once more.
“It was frustrating as we even shortened the sets to try and make up time, with the possibility of still getting some game time on court,” said Temlett. “Although the rain did stop for a few hours, it must be remembered it still takes another two hours in these cold conditions for the court surfaces to be playable again.”
Shortly after 21:00, a sense of disappointment enveloped the courts as the players and coaches came to terms with the cessation of play.
“There is no prize money for these events but points gleaned from such a tournament are of vital importance to the players and their careers. We have seen on numerous occasions in the past how players have used the points gained at our events to springboard their careers into the Grand Slams,” Temlett said.
“It’s a massive undertaking for us and I am so proud of the team and their efforts under extremely trying conditions. We have done everything this week to ensure the integrity of the tournament by giving the players the maximum opportunity.”
The doubles were called off at the semi-final stage with the points shared among the players.
Next up, between 1 and 15 December, are weeks four and five of the Curro Centre Court Series in Stellenbosch.
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