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HRC hosts junior selection tournament

January 18, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Some of the best junior tennis players in Ontario arrived at the Headwaters Racquet Club for a selection tournament on Saturday, January 13, and Sunday January 14.

The tournament is part of a series that ultimately leads to players being a part of Team Ontario.

“This a provincial circuit tournament – sanctioned by the Ontario Tennis Association,” explained tournament director, Miran Cehajic.

Cehajic is also the head of junior development at the Headwaters Racquet Club.

“It is one of the selection tournaments used to determine who will represent Ontario at the indoor nationals under 16, in April in Quebec,” Cehajic said, “This is selection tournament number one. There are also other selection tournaments and the top results from those tournaments will make up Team Ontario. It’s a stronger field than some other tournaments because these kids have to qualify to get here. There are 32 players here today.”

Competitors arrived from all over the Province.

After the competition players will receive a ranking then go on to the next tournament.

Players receiving the best results over tournament play will go on to represent Ontario at the national level.

Over the course of the two days players will play five matches and more if they continue through the semi-final and finals matches.

Competition includes both singles and doubles matches.

“To try to qualify to get here there were over 128 players and it was narrowed down to the 32 that are here. There’s a qualifying process to get here, from here you’re trying to qualify to get to the nationals,” Cehajic explained.

Some players qualified to compete at this tournament based on their ranking in the Province.

“The top 16 boys in the province didn’t have to qualify. They automatically were selected because of their ranking. The other 16 were selected from a qualifying tournament that happened last weekend to fill out the field of 32. Some of the boys are ranked nationally. The top two seeds are ranked in the top ten nationally. They just happened to live in Ontario.”

Players are ranked through provincial tournaments throughout the year.

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