Spartan Tennis Updates

Inter-Schools Tennis Challenge

Recently 22 of our Tennis Spartans competed at the Inter-Schools Tennis Challenge. This event was a doubles competition which saw our teams competing against 11 different schools on the Gold Coast. Our teams were split into the Junior Division consisting of students in Years 4 to 6 and the Middle Division, which had students in Years 7 to 9. Somerset had the most amounts of teams submitted at this event and came back with some impressive results.

In the Junior’s division, three out of our four teams out of a total of 58 teams made it through their groups and progressed into the final rounds. Students Audrey Hilbert and Stacey Yang finished at the top of their table, narrowly losing in the quarter finals. In the boys, we had a Somerset face-off between students Henry Pevy, Paxton Stewart, Abraham Saffuri and Hudson Harley. Paxton and Henry took out the match and narrowly lost in the quarterfinals, which saw them place fifth on a game count back. This was our best result in this division of the event. 

Well done to the following partnerships:

• Henry Pevy and Paxton Stewart
• Abraham Saffuri and Hudson Harley
• Audrey Hilbert and Stacey Yang
• Sanaaya Mapabandara and Teanna Li

The Middle Year’s division saw the remaining 14 of our students compete across seven different pools. Across 36 teams, four out of our seven teams made it through their respective groups, with students in the girl’s division Ruhara Mapabandara and Ling Rostas placing third overall after narrowly losing the semi-final. An amazing effort by them both and they should be very proud. Following the girl’s success, Orion Burdett and Huw Hoffman didn’t drop a single game before making it to the semi-finals, winning that one convincingly and narrowly losing in the final, placing second. Another great achievement for our Spartans. 

Well done to the following partnerships:

• Orion Burdett and Huw Hoffman
• Ling Rostas and Ruhara Mapabandara 
• Denver Bannerman and Zavier Iseppi 
• Raye FengXu and Jayden Fong 
• Lennox Foster and Krish Bhasin 
• Jackson Yeung and Tima Korin 
• Ethan Stewart and Justin Kim

Overall, it was a successful event, which had some great and our students handled themselves and the school extremely proudly. Well done again to our Spartans. The Somerset Coaching Team would like to thank Tennis Gold Coast for hosting the event and to the parents for providing their ongoing support. 

Red Ball Tournament

Eight of our 8 and Under Tennis Spartans competed at the first Red Ball Tournament event of 2023, Feburary 19. This is the first of eight Red Ball events hosted throughout the year, which sees players from across the region compete at a high level of red ball tennis.

In the girls draw, Bambi Whitcombe placed second after a hard-fought final, narrowly losing 10 to 15 to one of the best red ballers who has previously taken these events out. A great performance by our spartan. Spartan Taya Liu also had a great tournament, narrowly missing out into the semi-finals by one place, placing fifth overall.

On the boy’s side of the draw, students Dylan Kingston and Jack Dew both made the semi-finals, with Jack making it to the final, just missing out on taking the event out, finishing second. Jack and Dylan were two of the youngest competitors on the day and it is great to see them achieve such success early off in their tennis journey.

Well done to all our Spartans on the day who showed great sportsmanship and respect on and off the court. The Somerset Coaching Team would like to thank Hope Island Tennis Club on Sickle Avenue for hosting the event and to the parents for providing their ongoing support.

Overall Placings

• Emma Chen – 10th place
• Jack Dew – 2nd place
• Dylan Kingston – 3rd/4th place
• Paul Sang Yum – 10th place
• Taya Liu – 5th place
• Bambi Whitcombe – 2nd place
• Marcus Wong – 13th Place
• Bosheng Zhang – 14th place