LAURIETON'S tennis trio Blake, Corey and Krystal Clarke travelled to Grafton at the weekend to compete in our regions Champion of Champions. It started in February where they contested over 7 tournaments, the Medibank Junior Development series (JDS) and accumulated points with the top 8 boys & girls within their respective age group for the lower region in the North East sector. They played a round robin format against the top 8 Upper North East players which saw players at Grafton from Bulahdelah to the Qld border.
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Krystal contested the girls under 10 and won all her pool matches then in the semi final versed a girl from Grafton where Krystal displayed great court craft and powerful strokes from both the backhand & forehand sides and won 6/0. In the final Krystal played her good friend from Coffs Harbour where again Krystal displayed strokes & shots years beyond her age and was victorious 6/1.
Corey competed in the under 12 aged group and like his sister won his pool comfortably and played a Port Macquarie boy in the semi final where Corey showed why he was selected in the NSW PSSA team with some excellent power shots and Corey even tried his hand at serve volleys. Corey won 6/2. In the final Corey carried on from his semi to be the Under 12 boys winner 6/2. Corey unleashed many left hand angles with great results.
Eldest sibling Blake contested the under 14 age group and wasn’t pushed in his pool matches and even his semi final saw a one sided contest with Blake winning 6/1. The final was the most awaited contest of the weekend with Caleb from Banora Point, these two have contested this final for the past 5 years and both went in with the ledger on even status. The match started strong with both boys displaying powerful shots and at 2 all Blake had a chance to break and did in style with a forehand down the line winner and then held serve for a 4-2 lead. Both held serve and Blake served it out to be the eventual winner 6/3.
The trip home from Grafton was a satisfied effort and now sees the Clarke trio travel to Inverell to take on the North West region for a place at the state finals in August.
Prior to this tournament in the first week of the school holidays they played the NSW Country Championships. Krystal won the under 10 girls singles & mixed doubles and the boys were to contest the singles final (Corey U/12 & Blake U/14) unfortunately the weather took hold and had to be cancelled. The new Australian rankings released sees all 3 Clarke kids in the top 10 of NSW with Krystal at number 2, Corey number 8 and Blake still holding the number 3 position.
