12 June 2013 | Tennis Tasmania

After a fantastic weekend of high quality tennis the Burnie Open Australian Money Tournament is now in the books.

Play kicked off on an overcast Saturday with rain threatening throughout the day. In the match of the day between top seeded local Elliot Johnstone and eighth seeded Daniel Groom it was Johnstone who squeaked out a hardly fought 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory. On the girls side the match of the day was contested between fourth seeded Hannah Coombe and unseeded Victoria Geale. In another nail biter it was Geale who showed her experience with a 6-4, 6-4 scoreline.

After a night full of fun games and a BBQ at the Burnie Tennis Club finals day resumed on Sunday.

In the Men’s singles final another three set marathon was being contested between top seed Elliot Johnstone and second seeded Ken Ho. After claiming a hotly contested first set 7-5 it was Johnstone who rose his game by splitting sets with a 6-2 decision. It a tight third set battle it was Ho who took his chances en route to a 6-4 final set triumph. This is Ho’s first title of 2013 and showed he can still match it with the younger players.

In the Women’s singles final, due to injury, top seeded Janaya Smith was forced to withdraw from the final against second seeded Catherine Krueger. What would have been a blockbuster final against the two highest ranked Tasmanian players was unfortunately abandoned. Krueger, who was in scintillating form, breezed through her preliminary rounds not dropping a set. Her toughest match came in the semi-finals against Victoria Geale. In a much closer than the scoreline indicated Krueger came through with a 6-2, 6-0 result.

After the singles events the doubles finals ensued. In the Women’s doubles final the unseeded duo of Vanessa Dobson and Victoria Geale were too much for the fast finishing pair of Erin Fazackerley and Catherine Krueger coming away with a 6-1, 7-5 win. Having played together in the recent Pizzey Cup the duo had great chemistry and looked very comfortable together on court.

Lastly the Men’s doubles event wrapped up play. Like the Women’s doubles it was another giant killing run from unseeded Burnie duo Robert Easther and Anthony Johnstone claiming a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win over top seeded Elliot Johnstone and Martyn Icke. With the win Anthony can now claim bragging rights over his son Elliot in an all Burnie affair.

After a great weekend of play both on and off the court it was great to see the fun and enjoyment players had during this event. Tournament director Jamie Kay quoted “On behalf of the Burnie Tennis Club, I would like to thank players for your support of our event last weekend. I hope you enjoyed your experience at Burnie and look forward to seeing you back at our club in the future.”