14 August 2012 | Tennis Queensland

The Townsville Open AMT …

was held at Western Suburbs Tennis Club from Friday, 10^th August to Sunday, 12^th August, 2012.

Former training partners Brad Clews and Gavin Van Peperzeel (ranked as the top two seeds for the mens singles event) battled it out at the Townsville Open AMT.  It was the first time that Clews, who recently moved to Townsville from Brisbane as fulltime coach at Western Suburbs Tennis Club, had the opportunity to play Van Peperzeel in a final. 

While Clews had enjoyed the better of their previous head-to-head meetings, it was Van Peperzeel who prevailed, breaking his rival midway through the first set and going on to win 6-4, 6-3.

“There’s a bit of rivalry there and obviously you have to be mentally strong because you don’t want to have to worry about the friendship…so you have to block that out of your mind,” 24-year old Van Peperzeel said.  “I started off a bit shaky…but pretty much everything went my way, I didn’t have too many dramas.”

The rivalry was put to one side soon after however, as the pair joined forces to win the mens doubles crown.

Ebony Panoho, who trains at the National Academy in Brisbane won her womens finals, against Natalie Rogers from Calen, 6-1, 6-0.

“Most of my matches this weekend have been pretty tough, the score doesn’t really tell how tough they were,” she said.

High school student Panoho also won the womens doubles title alongside Ashlee Priddey 6-0, 6-4.

In the mixed doubles, Van Peperzeel completed a hat-trick alongside girlfriend Gina Adams, beating Panoho and David Single 7-5, 6-3 in the final.

More than 130 players competed at the three-day titles.

Other winners –

Special Mens Singles Ryan Schwab Special Mens Doubles Michael Burley & Tim Pilcher  Special Womens Singles Rachael Monaghan Special Womens Doubles Danica Black & Hannah Casswell Special Mixed Doubles Geoffrey Birt & Paula Simpson A Mens Singles Dallan Garvey A Mens Doubles Steve Houlihan & Ryan Schwab A Womens Singles Paula Simpson A Womens Doubles Paula Simpson & Maureen Crimeen  A Mixed Doubles Geoffrey Birt & Melissa Neil  B Mens Singles Barry Baker B Mens Doubles Karl Brasted & Claude Brent B Mixed Doubles Barry Baker & Sharon McDermott 18 Boys Singles Jordan Marshall 18 Girls Singles Gemma Tapson  18 Girls Doubles Alessandra Byrne & Montana Byrne 14 Boys Singles Ben Rane 14 Boys Doubles Mackenzie Bagley & Bryon Feliciano 14 Girls Singles Lily Clements-Markham