Lower Great Southern Tennis Association tastes success at Foundation Cup and D’arcy Slater Cup in Busselton

The Lower Great Southern Tennis Association was represented by eight juniors at the 2022 D’Arcy Slater Cup and Foundation Cup last week.

The competition ran from October 23-26 in Busselton with four girls and four boys from the LGSTA returning impressive results.

Denby Sharpe, Bryce Galos, Hugo Riggall and Lewis Raphael Ridge made up the boys’ team while the girls’ team consisted of Tea Zizek, Adalyn Sharpe, Olivia Riggall and Paige Michael.

The talented cohort faced off against players from Peel, Mid West, Upper Great Southern, Great Southern, South West, Central Districts and Eastern Districts.

The competition featured zone-based team competitions along with singles events.

Players from each team played doubles events to determine the final standings of each region in the teams competition.

The LGSTA boys finished runners-up in the division one teams event on 13 points, narrowly behind South West Boys A on 15 points.

The LGSTA girls finished third in their teams event.

Sharpe emerged victorious in the under-14 singles event, winning all four of his matches, including the final.

He defeated Matthew Strooh in straight sets in the round of 16 before accounting for Max Clegg in the quarterfinal.

He faced tight competition in the semifinal against Jaxon Wiperi, winning the first set 7-5 before a 6-1 win in the second to advance.

Sharpe then clashed with South West junior Arton Estrella in a thrilling final, edging past his opponent 7-6 to claim the first set.

Estrella won the second set 6-4 which sent the game into a nail-biting tie breaker. With both players going point for point, Sharpe edged ahead late and claimed a 13-11 victory in the tie breaker to win the competition.

Zizek was also superb in the under-14 girls singles to finish runner-up, falling just short in the tie breaker of her final.

Zizek defeated teammate Adalyn Sharpe in the first round in straight sets before accounting for Jane Drinkwater 6-1 and 6-2 to advance to the semifinal.

Another dominant performance in the semifinals against Jasmin Cronin put her through to the final where she faced South West’s Alifaye Gidgup.

Zizek took the first set 6-4 before Gidgup bounced back with a 7-6 second set. In the tie breaker round, Gidgup pushed clear early to defeat Zizek 10-3.

LGSTA junior co-ordinator Alex Riggall said he was thrilled with the performances of the local athletes.

“It was a very small but quality group that we brought across, both the teams and individuals had some really great results,” she said.

“It’s always nice for the kids to step outside of their little zone and area where they play all the time — just to see what’s out there and find out how their skills match up against other kids from different areas.

“It was really pleasing to see the kids enjoy themselves, and because it is an individual sport, it was really nice for them to have that team feeling too.

“We only took eight kids over and some of the other zones had probably three or four teams of each girls and boys, so it was a really quality group of great kids that combined well as teams, along with some great individual success as well.”