The hour-and-a-half training session started at seven in the morning in very chilly conditions, which proved to be great preparation for their matches.

Joel Gordon continued his good training form to win the 16-and-under final against a Sydney opponent.

His best match was the semi-final against the highly rated Matt Stewart, where his thinking and change of pace was a deciding fact in his win.

Jack Catanzariti struggled in the early rounds to find his natural rhythm.

He was disappointed to lose in a tie-breaker in a three-setter against the eventual winner in the 16-and-under consolation final.

Jack won the first set easily before nerves made him tightened up. However, he redeemed himself in the doubles along with partner Matt Stewart.

Jack went for his shots in impressive style, winning the three-set tie-breaker with a great serve volley point.

Annaliese Quarisa lost to the number two-seed in the main draw but played her best tennis ever to make the consolation final to finish a credible runner-up.

Alison Triggs also lost in the main draw to the number four-seed.

She made the quarter-finals, losing in a gripping three-setter.

A feature of Alison’s play was her ability to come back after losing the first set.

She won the second set in a tie-breaker 7-5, but then lost a super tie-breaker 10-7.

Court time for this set was a duration of two hours, which showed the intensity of the match. Alison and Annaliese teamed up to finish third in the doubles.

Jaidyn Dickie made the quarter-finals in the 14s consolation round after beating a much bigger opponent in yet another three-setter.

Jaidyn’s ability to chase down the hard ball is amazing to watch.

Cooper Savage continued to improve with a very solid performance.

His serve is not far off becoming a big weapon for him.

He made his opponents work hard, with one of his matches lasting one-and-a-half hours.

Dean Burge made his way into second round consolation with his persistence starting to show rewards for him.

Joel and Dean also came third in their doubles.

The same weekend Megan Polkinghorne played in Canberra, winning her final against a girl ranked 150 places above her.

Megan did the little things that count to make this happen, like warming up every morning correctly as well as scouting her opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, which Megan exploited on court.

She also won the doubles with the girl she defeated in the final.

Megan crossed well and particularly served and volleyed well to close the games out.

Her dedication to training is reflected with her on-court performance, with all facets of her game continuing to improve.

The improvement in players’ mental toughness and ability to fight to the end in matches is impressive.

Our special MIA home tournament is not far away, so please everyone put your entries in at www.92computing.com by Saturday.