72 tennis players for West Pacific champs
There has been a decrease in the number of participants at the West Pacific Regional Championships, which concluded in Lautoka yesterday.
However, tournament director Sereima Lalavanua said it did not deter other tennis players from the region to fly in.
About 72 tennis players from four countries were part of the tournament, which is a qualifier for the Pacific Oceania Junior Championship. This will be hosted by Fiji in July.
Teams were from Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu in the Under-12, U14 and U16 grades. Lalavanua indicated that some local players created upsets and performed well during the past five days.
These players include Uraia Ratu who won the U14 grade finals against Frank Sun, 4-6, 6-2 and 10-5. “The numbers have decreased a bit because I believe some of the nations want to push more grassroot kids, for example Vanuatu did not field any Under-12 girls because of that,” Lalavanua said.
“There have been big changes. We’ve seen the kids who were runners-up and had placings last year are placed in the top four this year, which says a lot of for development and tennis as a whole.
“After COVID-19 we’ve seen the increase in number of players interested to play tennis, not only in Fiji but worldwide.
“There is not much given to tennis development from the organisation
but we hope there will be a change this year. It’s not a cheap sport. “The winners and runners-up from this competition will qualify for the July competition where players over 13 to 18 years-old will take part in,” she added.
Lalavanua indicated they are anticipating next week’s International
Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament where more than 30 countries will be participating.
The tournament starts from Monday where players play to improve their world rankings; the ITF competition will end on April 21.