The annual St Benedict’s College Invitational Tennis Tournament was held on 28 and 29 January 2012. There was a fantastic selection of good tennis school competing. The singles matches were decided over the best of three sets and the doubles matches were decided over one Pro Set.

In the Quarter Finals, played on Saturday afternoon, St Stithians beat St David’s (3-1), Waterkloof beat St John’s (4-0) and St Benedict’s overcame KES (5-0). Rain, unfortunately, caused these matches not to be completed. The match between HTS Middelburg and Cornwall Hill was very evenly poised and, both, teams were called in to complete this match at 6h00 on Sunday morning. The tie ended up 3-all in matches and 6-all in sets, resulting in games won having to be counted, with HTS Middelburg going through to the Semi Final, by 51 games to 50.

In the first Semi Final, St Stithians hammered HTS Middelburg (6-0), winning all four singles matches and both doubles matches. The second Semi Final, between the hosts and Waterkloof, ended up 3-all in matches, but Bennies went through by virtue of winning one extra set against a very feisty Waterkloof team. In the Backdraw Semi Finals, St David’s did well to beat Cornwall Hill (5-1) and KES beat St John’s (4-0). The KES/St John’s tie was keenly contested, with the final score not doing St John’s any justice.

In the 7th/8th Playoff, Cornwall Hill were 2-1 up against St John’s, in the 5th/6th Playoff, KES were 2-0 up against St David’s and in the 3rd/4th Playoff, Waterkloof were 2-0 up against HTS Middelburg, when the heavens opened, at about 15h00, resulting in no further play being possible.

The Final between the two top seeds was an absolute humdinger. In the battle of the number 1s, Bennies’ Ryan Laubser came back from being 6-2, 5-2 down against Saints’ Ivan Briechle to win an exciting and high quality, match 2-6, 7-5, 10-7 (Champions Tiebreaker). The singles match between Craig Fieldgate (Saints) and Joshua Roberts (Bennies), the respective number 2 players,  ended up with Craig Fieldgate winning a very close match 3-6, 6-2, 14-12 (Champions Tiebreaker). The respective number 3 and 4 players were busy with their first sets, when the heavens opened putting an end to all further play. Saints and Bennies were declared joint winners and shared the trophy. Bennies’ Ryan Laubser was announced as the Player of the Tournament.

Attached is a Photo of the Bennies and Saints tennis players (from left to right):Ivan Briechle, Craig Fieldgate, Nick Duke, Joshua Roberts, Nicky Hammann (Tournament Organiser), Stuart Taylor, Ryan Laubser, Mason Greeff and Brandon Laubser.