Tennis talent set to serve

By Marc McGowan
MORE than 200 of the state’s top tennis talents will converge on Narre Warren and Cranbourne East for the second annual Casey Junior Masters this week.
The tournament begins tomorrow (Friday) and runs until Tuesday when the majority of the finals will be played.
Matches will take place over two venues – Casey Tennis Centre and Casey Fields Tennis Centre – and age groups include 12s, 14s and 16s in both genders.
There will be no under-18 age group this year due to the clash with the Australian Open junior lead-in events.
Upper Beaconsfield rising star Sam Hall and Wonga Park’s Brooke Driessen are the number-one seeds in the 16-year-old boys’ and girls’ singles respectively.
But there are plenty of local chances throughout the events.
Lysterfield’s Caleb Boland and Doveton’s Miles Lita will have high hopes in the 12-year-old boys’ singles, while Endeavour Hills pair Rhys Xavier and Dejan Erakovic will feature strongly in the 16-year-old boys’ singles.
Xavier won the 14-year-old boys’ singles and made the fourth round of the open men’s singles at last month’s Victorian Grasscourt Championships in Geelong.
He also partnered Andrew Florent, who reached a world ranking of 13 in doubles in 2001, to a semi-final showing in the men’s open doubles.
Tournament co-director Paul Kleverlaan hopes this year’s instalment will be as successful as the inaugural competition in 2008.
“There are a lot of tournaments at this time of year, so we are down slightly on entries,” he said.
“We’ve gone a week later (this year). We’ve just got to try and avoid clashes and we’ll look at the timing for next year.
“I’d like to get the points for this one up a bit and that will attract the bigger, or better-name, players.”
Play starts at 8am tomorrow at both venues.
Kleverlaan is competing at the Australian Seniors Championships in Adelaide this week.
He will be back to oversee the final two days of the tournament with co-director Ben Goltz.
“Hopefully the weather is kind to us and it’d be nice if we got some spectators down because it’s free entry,” he said.