The first ever ITF Juniors Tournament held at the International Tennis Centre at Zayed Sports City came to a dramatic climax today with the boy's and girl's singles and doubles finals.
Two of PSS's bright young stars, Justin Roberts and Bart Van Leijsen won the boy's doubles title, beating Gokberk Ergeneman and Arda Uzumcu 6-3 6-4 in the final.
Ergeneman, ranked 1569, was the pick of the boys players, reaching the singles final as well as the doubles and defeating top seed R Nashatyrkin, ranked 178 in the world, on the way. He beat third seed Xander Veys, ranked 325, 3-6 6-3 7-5 in the final.
The girl's singles final was won by Anna Blinkova who beat Vasilisa Aponasenko 6-2 6-3. A special mention must go to PSS-trained Nicole Coopersmith. The prodigious 13-year old battled all the way to the quarter finals before being beaten by Blinkova.
Daria Glushich and Yekaterina Gubanova beat Natala Vikhlyantseva and Alina Zolotareva 6-3 6-2 to take the girl's doubles title.
PSS Managing Director, Willem Verhaert, said: "It is great for PSS, for Zayed Sport City and for the kids that live here to have this type of competition at their home club.
"It is good experience for them and it helps their development because they get to see where they stand against other top players from all over the world.
"It has also been great for us to see some of our players doing so well in the competition."
ITF Junior Tournaments are graded 1 to 5, with 1 being the best. This week's tournament was Grade 4 and there are plans to host a Grade 3 tournament next year.
"Hopefully this is the first of many ITF Junior events we can host here. We are already making plans to hold another one next year which will attract more of the world's best to Zayed Sport City," added Verhaert.
The next tennis action at Zayed Sport City is the Abu Dhabi Wilson Tennis Cup, the biggest amateur tennis event in the UAE, which begins on Feb 1.
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