Tennis: Vijay Junior Tour - Roquain, Andriamaro and Denzel Laporte champions |13 June 2014

The Vijay Junior Tour 2013/14 ended last Sunday at the Cerf Island Resort with the three finals in three age categories – under-10, under-14 and under-18.

In the presence of more than 50 people including National Sports Council (NSC) chief executive Giovanna Rousseau, the six finalists gave their best and displayed a good level of skills and good attitude on the court.

The championship started last September and after six tournaments the four players who accumulated the most points in each category qualified for the Masters.

In the Under-10 category, the players who qualified were Therese Soukup, Duncan Accouche, Aneesh Ramani and Denzel Laporte. Laporte and Ramani were the two finalists.  

Laporte did not have a straight-forward passage to final as he was taken to three sets in the semifinal against Accouche. He fell behind in the first set which he lost 2-4, but managed to come back to win the next two sets 4-0 and 4-2 to seal his spot in the final.

Ramani faced Soukoup in the other semifinal match and won 2-0 (4-2, 4-0) to set up a final showdown against Laporte.

The level of play was a bit low early on in the final as the two players were tense, but they finally showed good abilities to use all their strokes. Laporte was more consistent and won more crucial points to eventually run out 2-1 (4-2, 3-4, 4-2) winner to claim the under-10 trophy. Accouche finished in third position.

The under-14 final pitted Theo Barois against Shaun Andriamaro. Andriamaro progressed to the final by defeating Christian Payet in straight sets – 2-0 (4-1, 4-0), while Barois breezed past Arnold Mein on a 2-0 (4-2, 4-1) scoreline.

In the final encounter, the impressive Andriamaro took the lead from the beginning and it was hard for Barois to keep pace with him. The match eventually ended after two sets with Andriamaro securing the win with 4-0 and 4-1 scores. Arnold Mein finished ahead of Payet for third position.

Andriamaro registered several good performances over the past few weeks and we are likely to see him earn more wins soon. Barois, with his fair play, tried his best and said that he will work harder to follow Andriamaro's track.

The big match of the day was the under-18 final where two of Seychelles’ best young tennis players squared off once again in a repeat of last year’s final.

Damien Laporte and Titouan Roquain are two young players who year after year have been showing improvement in their game and the level of play in the final on Sunday was very good.

Laporte played well inside the court and hit the ball hard in the first set which he won, but Roquain built his game with some really good forehand and slowly took advantage of the court and the score.

In the end it was Roquain who came from a set down to clinch victory on a 2-1 (3-4, 4-2, 4-1) scoreline to keep the good rivalry going between the two bright prospects for Seychelles’ tennis.