The Austin Tennis Academy junior athletes stormed through this past weekends tournaments, securing four super champ spots and qualifying 7 out of 10 players for Little Mo regionals. The Champ and ZAT athletes traveled to Berry Creek and Waco for the major zones, while the younger players traveled to Dallas for the Little Mo sectionals.

 

At the Berry Creek Champ Major Zone, Rahul Gorti, Alex Mjos, Oliver Seifert and Leighton Forshee all fought to earn super champ status. Rahul, Mjos and Forshee all claimed the tournament crown, while Seifert qualified by reaching his second straight final.

 

"We constantly tell our players that results lag behind work 4-6 months,” Coach Newman said. “This month was a good example as Rahul Gorti and Alex Mjos, who both committed to a greater effort in practice months ago, see the fruits of their labor with wins a the Georgetown Champ Major Zone.”

The tournament produces two all ATA finals. Alex Mjos battled teammate and friend Kristen Kerrigan who reached the final round, while Oliver and Leighton competed in the boys 18s final.

"The All ATA Boys 18s finals was another quality match, similar to Oliver vs. Landon Weiss last month,” Newman said.  “Both Oliver and Leighton played for over 2 hours in a close 2 set match.  The quality of tennis was high-level superchamp and I expect both players to have immediate success at the superchamp level. The other All ATA Final with Kristin Kerrigan and Alex Mjos shows the strength of the younger players in our program.  Along with Jack Schiffman who was a finalist in the Boys 12s, all of ATA younger players are improving at a fast rate."

 

 

Liam Leddy also reached the backdraw finals of the champ major zone.

At Little Mo sectionals in Dallas, ten ATA youngsters competed admirably, with 7 of the 10 qualifying for regionals. The remaining three will most likely get into regionals as well, with a wild card.

Ela Razcka stormed through her draw to win the Little Mo sectionals. After falling first round, Tyler Anson stormed through the backdraw to claim the consolation championship. Jesse Wikso made it to the semis in the B11s and Harrison Chiu made it to the finals of B10s.  Players qualifying for Regionals were Georgia Wright, Max Schmidhauser, Jesse Wikso, Harrison Chiu, Ela Razcka, Tyler Anson and Jackson Foreman. The other three still have a shot at qualifying as well.

"Everyone competed like champions!” Coach John said. “I was proud to be a part of ATA's Little Mo Clan!"

 

(Not pictured: Blaine Kanak and Harrison Chiu)

In Waco, Brooks Lane reached the semi finals on his draw, while Jordyn Kanak won her girls 14s consolation draw.

“Brooks Lane did a great job of playing within himself to reach the ZAT semi's,” Coach Notis said. “In the semi's he never gave up, coming back from a set and 1-3 down to earn set points in the second set.  While he ultimately fell a bit short in the semi's, Brooks can be proud of how he competed. Jordyn Kanak played focused and consistent, moving through the G14's backdraw.”

Also competing in the ZAT, Jay Spiers reached the second round, Caleb Reightmer made the quarterfinals and Hugh Cook reached the consolation finals.

Congratulations to all of the ATA junior athletes who competed this past weekend. Don’t forget to come out and watch the top 12 boys and girls for ATA compete this coming weekend against St. Stephen’s in the annual Texas Cup!