31 October 2013 | Tennis Queensland

The Queensland Medibank Junior Development Series Finals were held in Rockhampton over the 26th and 27th of October. It was a big weekend of tennis and the Gold Coast players really embraced playing as a team and ended up WINNING the overall tournament.

The competition went right down to the wire with the Gold Coast team leading by 3 at the end of day 1. Seeing their lead evaporate, Gold Coast were able to pick up some vitals wins late on day 2 to hold off North QLD and Far North QLD by 1 and 2 points respectively. Gold Coast came home strong to take home the Ken Hick-Murray Whitbread Trophy.

Congratulations to all who participated in the event. Alex Furst also took out the 11/Under Boys singles title. Alex had to fight hard in the final! Alex won the first set 6/4 and was down 4/0 in the second but fought his way back into the second set and won it 6/4. Fantastic result for Alex taking out the title.

Huge Congratulations to Jesse Stephenson, Laia Pasini and Harrison Turner. All participating in their first ever State Finals and all coming away with fantastic results. Jesse Stephenson and Laia Pasini both won their pools on day one, which put them into the semi-finals for day two. Laia played great tennis but lost her semi-final. Jesse Stephenson played a two hour semi-final where she played some great tennis. Jesse won her semi 6/7 6/3 10/4. Jesse then played a great match in the final where she was beaten and ended up running 2^nd overall. Laia played her playoff for 3 & 4^th and played a tought match where she won 10/8 in the third set super tie break. Harrison Turner played great tennis over the weekend and displayed great sportsmanship where he ran 12^th overall.

In the 13/under age group all Gold Coast participants played with great sportsmanship and were all fantastic team players for the Gold Coast. Ben Hielscher won his pool on day one and had a very tough semi-final the next day! Ben played fantastic tennis throughout the two days and ended up running 3^rd overall. Darcy Devilliers showed great fighting spirit in all his matches and ended up running 9^th overall. In the girls, Rhiannon Frizzell and Emma Mitchell both played well for the Gold Coast Team. Rhiannon had to fight hard in her last playoff match and she ended up running 6^th overall. Emma Mitchell played some awesome tennis through out the two days and ran 10^th overall.

Tayla Lawson, Shannen Meyer, Karl Mosterd and Josh Piunti all displayed great sportsmanship whilst playing over the two days. Tayla Lawson won her pool on the first day and ended up coming 4^th place overall which was a fantastic effort. Shannen Meyer played some fantastic tennis and had great results on day two to come 11^th overall. The two boys were very competitive in all there matches playing some great tennis over the weekend. Birthday boy Karl came 6^th place overall and Josh Piunti ran 7^th overall.

The 17/Under age group consisteted of Samantha Cameron, Jennifer Clarke, Ben Mitchell and Khyel Bentley-Tucker. All these players showed fantastic leadership over the weekend through there tennis and also through always looking out for the team at all times. Jennifer Clarke and Samantha Cameron played some tough matches where they both competed very well. Jennifer Clarke won her pool on day one and won her semi final. She lost in the final and ran 2^nd overall which was a fantastic result. Samantha Cameron played some great matches and ended up coming 5^th overall. Ben Mitchell and Khyel Bentley-Tucker both played a lot of competitive matches throughout the weekend. They were the last two playing on the final day and had the whole Gold Coast team supporting them behind the courts on their last match. Ben competed in his last year of the JDS state finals and came 4^th overall and Khyel came 7^th overall.

The weather was hot in Rockhampton and all participants competed well at the tennis tournament and we were all very excited to be the overall winners for 2013. Other highlights of the trip was definitely Karl Mosterd celebrating his birthday over the weekend! Ben Mitchell managed to make sure everyone knew it was his birthday! Bowling on Sunday evening was a lot of fun with Samantha Cameron scoring 1 record 158.

A huge thank you to the supervisors for the trip. It was a big weekend and all supervisors watched a lot of tennis. Thank you to Stephen Kua, Connie Chan and Ian Brosman for volunteering their time to this weekend. Also a big thank you to Totally teeth and the Gold Coast Regional Assembly for the funding that was put towards this state finals trip!