Grooming young talents

Manama : The Bahrain Tennis Academy (BTA) held its 14th Annual Junior Awards Ceremony at the Dilmun Sports Club in Saar. Shortlisted players gathered to honour the most outstanding players of the season with 15 awards presented. The awards were split into two sections - ‘Best of 2016/17’ (11 categories) and ‘Player of the Year’ (four age groups).

Some of the categories included Best Forehand, Best Backhand, Most Improved Player and Best Sportsmanship. Five players were short-listed for each award and then the winner was chosen based on the criteria for each category and also taking into account each player’s level and experience in the game.

Winners of the Player of the Year awards were Shakti Suryanarayan (6 and under), Abdulaziz Al Betairi 8 and under), Aadya Raju (10 and under), Owen Verbeek (11 and over). Other category winners were Boudica Verbeek, Aiden Kadissi, Mohnish Bhadra, Salma Fares and Hani Halawani.

Longtime student, Abdulaziz Al Betairi, was the star of the ceremony. Apart from being crowned eight years and under Player of the Year, he was nominated for nine of the other 11 categories and collected awards in three of them.

The awards were presented by BTA Director, Dan Barrie, who said, “This season saw our longest serving student, Owen Verbeek, move to France to train full-time at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy. We hope his and others’ outstanding efforts will encourage more Bahrain based players to strive to reach their potential.”

For more information on BTA’s junior programmes, which will resume in September, contact the Director at dan@bahraintennisacademy.