Saskatchewan Dominates at the U14 & U18 Prairie Regional Tennis Championships

Team Saskatchewan captured 3 out of 4 events at the U14 & U18 Prairie Regional Tennis Championships held in Regina at Douglas Park from June 29 – June 30, 2004. The prairie regional tennis championships which serve as the new qualifying process for Junior Nationals saw the top 4 boys and girls from Manitoba and Saskatchewan compete to qualify 4 boys and 4 girls to represent the region at the junior nationals to be held later on this summer.

The Girls U14 event an all Saskatchewan final was won by 14 year old Anna Nelke of Regina. Anna who just last weekend was crowned Saskatchewan U14 & U16 provincial champion defeated Saskatoon’s Katherine Melnychuk 6-1, 6-1 in the final. Joining Nelke and Melnychuk at the Junior Nationals will be Anita Paskvolin & Clarissa Chen of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The Boys U14 event was dominated by Saskatchewan players. Saskatchewan boys took 3 out of the 4 spots to junior nationals. Alex Lesiuk of Winnipeg captured the final defeating Martin Prusinkiewicz of Saskatoon 6-1, 3-6, 7-5. Martin held a 4-1 lead in the 3rd set before Lesiuk stormed back to win the title. Saskatoon player Jordan Christiansen, Adrian Urteaga of Dundurn finished 3rd and 4th respectively. Eric Yee also of Saskatoon narrowly qualified for the U14 nationals, he finished in 5th place.

The U18 Girls was captured by Martyna Nowak of Saskatoon 6-1, 6-0 in the final against Joanna Woo of Winnipeg. Martyna who was crowned U18 provincial champion dominated the field losing one game the entire tournament. Joining Martyna and Joanna at the U18 nationals will be Erica Chen of Winnipeg and Teo Costin of Saskatoon.

Brad Luciuk of Saskatoon dominated the U18 boys event winning all his matches relatively easily. Brad defeated Matt Luczynski of Winnipeg 6-2, 6-1 in the final. Joining Brad and Matt at junior nationals will be Sean Lacap of Winnipeg and Stephen Budd of Saskatoon. Regina’s Sean Gross finished 5th place.