22 July 2013 | Tennis Tasmania

After a cold and wet start, the Bruce Cup trials have been completed at the Launceston Regional Tennis Centre. From these trials 7 boys and 7 girls earned their right to represent Tasmania at the 2013 Bruce Cup held October 19-25 in Brisbane, QLD.

With sign in for all participants closing at 9.30am a live draw ensued. After the format and instructions were given, players hit the indoor and outside synthetic clay courts in their ever important pool groups. On the girls side players were divided up into four groups with winners gaining direct acceptance into the team. After this early group play standouts Lucy Allwright, Charlotte Ingram, Sophie Johnstone and Lucy Jones all inked their names into the team. With the final three spots left to be earned all second placed group contestants took to the court. After the first group of playoff matches Meg Radford squeaked through an 8-7(1) decision over Ella Visser while Eliza Bird was much more clinical in her victory over Kristina Peduru-Arachchige. With the last spot on the team up for grabs it was Kristina Peduru-Arachchige prevailing in a nail biting 8-7(3) victory over Ella Visser.

On the boys side the format changed marginally with the winners of the six pools to play the runners up of other pool groups which were drawn out in the morning. As noted earlier the six playoff victories would gain direct acceptance to the team with the highest ranked (Australian Rankings) lucky loser setting the 7th and final spot. After some outstanding play Ruben McCormack avenged falling agonisingly short last year with a comfortable win over Samuel Edgar, whilst top seeded Ben Cawston prevailed over James Anderson respectively. Following suit Samuel Elliston-Buckley and Oscar Targett claimed wins over Jordan Petryk and Fergus Bridge to concrete their place in the team. What were to follow were two upset results with eighth seeded William Gibson defeating fourth seeded Tristan Lynch 8-6 and for a spot in the team Sam Plunkett-Smith upset Robert Green by an identical 8-6 score line. With all the results in place it was Tristan Lynch who became the lucky loser as the highest ranked player available.

After a great days action we welcome through the 2013 Tasmanian Bruce Cup team as follows;

Boys 

• Ben Cawston
• Samuel Elliston-Buckley
• William Gibson
• Tristan Lynch
• Ruben Mccormack
• Sam Plunkett-Smith
• Oscar Targett

Girls

• Lucy Allwright
• Eliza Bird
• Charlotte Ingram
• Sophie Johnstone
• Lucy Jones
• Kristina Peduru-Arachchige
• Meg Radford

Lastly we would like to send a big thank you to all participants and parents for taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend these Bruce Cup trials in Launceston. It was a fantastic day of play with some outstanding skills and sportsmanship on hand. We are very excited to bring you the 2013 Tasmanian Bruce Cup team!