12-y-o Miguel Rose cops top honours at SOS tennis tournament

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

The SOS Children's Village at Barnett Town in St James climbed on to the St James tennis radar officially last Saturday with the first instalment of the Spoon's Auto Supplies Tennis Challenge series, which featured children from the village.

The competition, which was the first of its kind at the facility, is aimed at determining the progress of the children, who have been benefiting from a coaching programme started by MoBay Tennis in September 2012.

"We are seeking to identity the children with the potential to make an impact on the sport," said Simon Casserly, the president of MoBay Tennis. "We have had a programme going on at the village for quite a while, so this is also an opportunity to measure the progress being made there."

Since the MoBay Tennis project started at the village last year, the children have been benefiting from the expertise of accomplished tennis coach Frank Harris, who has been offering four clinics per week at the institution, which has a single tennis court.

"This tournament was basically designed to establish who is the King of the Court at SOS Village and to give at least two children the opportunity to earn their first trophies," said Casserly. "Spoon's Auto Supplies has committed to sponsoring the programme for the next three months."

Prior to last Saturday's event, Dave Brown, managing director of Spoon's Auto Supplies, presented Casserly with a cheque of $120,000 to fund the programme for the next three months and to finance the inaugural Spoon's Auto Supplies Tennis Challenge.

GRITTY DISPLAY

In a most encouraging performance, 12-year-old Miguel Rose surprised the organisers of the event with a gritty display, which saw him emerging victorious from a field of 30 entrants in the competition, which was open to all the residents of the facility, regardless of age or gender.

"He was crowned King of the Court after racking up an impressive total of 27 tie-break victories in the winner-stay-on format, which was used in the tournament," said Casserly. "Each player got two chances to challenge. His closest rival was Mario Campbell, who copped the runner-up award with five victories."