On Sunday 12th September, the Nexus Junior Tennis Tour reached the end of its 2021 summer season with finals held at the Exeter Golf & Country Club.
The sun was shining for much of the tournament which was held across 5 of Exeter Golf & Country Club’s outdoor courts with the top 5 players from the Nexus Junior leaderboard, each playing 4 matches to compete for the winning position in both the 16 and under (16U) and 12 and under (12U) age groups from various clubs across Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.
After over 5 hours of matches, the finals concluded with Rory Harkness (South Devon Tennis Centre) displaying some powerful play to take the title of Nexus 16U Champion 2021, with Ryan Fitzhenry battling his way into second place, taking the 16U Runner-up position.
In the 12U category, Elijah Daka (Boscawen Park, Truro) earned himself the well-deserved title of Nexus 12U Champion 2021 with an impressive and passionate display of tennis from this junior. The 12U Runner-up position went to Jayden Lovelock (Ilfracombe Lawn Tennis Club) after this young challenger had fought his way through some exciting matches.
The Nexus Junior Tour is a Grade 6 event aimed at 12U (mixed) for those coming out of mini tennis and older 16U (boys) players with an LTA rating 10.2 and 8.1 from across the South West region who have either not competed, or competed very little but would like to participate in competitions. Over 60 young players have participated during the 2021 season with the tournament visiting several tennis clubs around Devon including Exeter Golf and Country Club, South Devon Tennis Centre (Ivybridge), the Atlantic Racquet Centre (Bideford), Tarka Tennis Centre (Barnstaple) and Nuffield Health (Plymouth), throughout the year.
Stuart Wilson from the Exeter-based IT company, Nexus Open Systems, which sponsors the tour, said: “Congratulations to all of the players who took part in the finals day. Without exception, every one of these young players displayed passion and enthusiasm in every match whilst playing some brilliant tennis today. They are all a credit to their parents, many of whom have travelled a long way to be here. Our thanks go to James Temple (Head of Rackets) at Exeter Golf & Country Club for hosting such a well organised event and Deborah Freeman for representing Devon Tennis at the event.
We hope to expand the competition and we are really looking forward to seeing more of these young players in the season ahead.”
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Next events: To be confirmed
Nexus events are currently Grade 6 events which can be booked via the LTA official website.
Matches count towards player ratings between 10.2 and 8.1 (but not player rankings). New rules will apply in late 2021/early 2022 in line with the LTA’s new ‘World Tennis Number’ player rating system.