19 November 2019 | Tennis West

The globally renowned Rafa Nadal Tour has completed its final Australian stop at the Perth Bronze Junior Tennis Event at the State Tennis Centre, with winners set to head to Melbourne in January 2020.

The tour, which held stages throughout the year in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and WA, will conclude with the Rafa Nadal Masters Event in Melbourne in January. Each stop was aimed at showcasing a competitive and educational program while fostering the tour values of sportsmanship, commitment, fellowship and effort.

Local Perth junior players Jake Dembo and Alice Stevens won the 12/u titles while James Newton and Saanvi Tak won the 14/u titles at the tournament which concluded yesterday.

Fellow West Australian Rhea Makesar will also contest the Masters Event in Melbourne having won the girls 14/u Victorian Junior Gold tournament earlier this year.

Carlos Cuadrado from the Rafa Nadal Tour also revealed the Trophy of Values recipients, with Gerard Hadianto and Elena Manoj in the 12/u age group and Marko Mrdak and Peyton Duckett in the 14/u age group awarded for their outstanding on and off court behaviour.

Rafa Nadal Tour Values Coach Carlos Cuadrado was delighted with the quality of the tennis and the off-court values displayed by the West Australian juniors.

“It was a pleasure to be in Perth on behalf of the Rafa Nadal Tour to help share Rafa’s message.”

“We want to continue to work with Australian juniors to share and educate players on the importance of the values of sportsmanship, effort, fellowship and commitment.”

“Thank you to everyone who was involved in the Perth event, the quality of tennis was great throughout the whole tournament. We saw this particularly on finals day when some very strong matches were played,” Cuadrado said.

Rafa Nadal Tour Perth Bronze JT results:
12/u boys’ final: [1] Jake Dembo def. [2] Nemanja Savic 4-2 4-1
12/u girls’ final: [3] Alice Stevens (Vic) def. [4] Amy Findlay 4-0 4-0
14/u girls’ final: [2] Saanvi Tak def. [7] Gayle Leong 4-1 4-1
14/u boys’ final: [1] James Newton def. Kevin Herbert 4-3 (2) 4-0

Rafa Nadal Tour Values Trophy recipients:
12/u girls’: Elena Manoj
12/u boys’: Gerard Hadianto
14/u girls’: Peyton Duckett
14/u boys’: Marko Mrdak

Winners of the WA stage of the Rafa Nadal Tour, in addition to the four Values Trophy recipients, will head to Melbourne in January to compete against winners from QLD, NSW and VIC for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Mallorca in Spain for a two-week training program at the renowned Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar.