5 December 2012 | Tennis Victoria

Victoria has claimed the boys’ and girls’ 14s Teams Championships at the December Showdown, the first time this has been achieved in the competition.

In a further show of the depth of tennis in Victoria, we also fielded a B team in both the boys’ and girls’ competition, with the boys’ team finishing in third position, while the girls’ team finished in sixth.

Tennis Victoria’s Player Development Coordinator Emily Rea said she was incredibly proud of what the teams achieved.

“It’s a huge effort from both the teams to claim the 14s Teams Championships and to do it in the same year really highlights the strength of Victorian players in that age group,” Rea said.

“It was also really important for these kids to get some solid match play leading into the 14s Nationals, which start today. This has been the perfect preparation for the Nationals, so hopefully we can get some great individual results now.”

Destanee Aiava, Michelle Pits and Jessica Brzozowska teamed up in the 14s girls’ event and defeated Western Australia in a tight final.

In the first match, Aiava went down to Maddison Inglish 7-6 6-1, before Michelle Pits evened proceedings with a hard fought 3-6 6-0 6-4 victory over Sacha Bolweg. The pair then cruised to an emphatic victory in the doubles 6-0 6-2.

Richard Yang, Mike Vaughan and Daniel Nguyen made up the boys’ team to defeat NSW in another tight encounter.

Yang was first up and cruised to victory 6-2 6-1 over Alex DeMinaur, before Benard Nkomba evened the match for NSW with a 7-6 6-1 win over Nguyen.

It came down to the wire in the final doubles match, with Mike Vaughan teaming up with Nguyen to post a memorable 6-7 6-3 12-10 third set win in the Super Tiebreak.

The 14s Nationals started today at Melbourne Park.

Photo: Mae Dumrigue