PALMERS Tennis Academy hosted their annual Orange ball Mini Tennis tournament at Palmers Sports and Fitness Centre last weekend.

The competition, for eight and nine-year-olds, was divided into two groups of five where each entrant played four championship tie break matches in a round-robin format.

Once all the matches were completed the top two players from each group who had the highest number of wins and points progressed – these were Jacob Walton, Freddie Whybrow, Dylan McGregor and Kai Ball.

The semi-final line-up saw Jacob take on Kai and Freddie battle Dylan with each pair playing another championship tie break up to 10 points.

After some very exciting play from all four boys, Kai won his match 10 - 6 and Dylan won his 10 - 7.

The final was to be the best of three tie breaks (first to seven points) to allow the duration of the contest to be longer.

This match produced some very long and entertaining rallies with a lot of skill shown by both finalists.

Dylan used his speed to good effect and produced some lovely top spin groundstrokes but, with his extra height advantage, power, consistency and fitness coming through, Kai overcame Dylan 7 -3, 7 - 5 to become the 2016 Palmer`s Orange Mini Tennis Champion.

The whole day was experienced by an excellent attendance of parents and relatives who enjoyed the whole spectacle and contributed to its success.