Damon is SA U16 tennis ace
Those two matches were the best tennis I've played my whole life.
Toti tennis star, Damon Kesaris was crowned the SA U16 champion after he whitewashed Jordan Sauer of Pretoria 6-0, 6-0 in a dominating 52 minutes in the finals of the South African Junior Championships.
The 16-year-old cruised into the final without losing a set in four matches played and lost only eleven games throughout the week at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein on Easter Monday.
“I was stoked to win the final. I was not expecting to win, as I knew my opposition was tough, but I knew that if I played well I stood a chance,” he said.
Damon beat his Davis Cup doubles partner, Calvin Jordan 6-2, 6-1 in the semi-finals to set up his encounter with Sauer.
“Those two matches were the best tennis I’ve played my whole life,” he said. “Something just happened. I wish I knew what it was.”
However, it was more likely due to the hard work the Glenwood grade 11 pupil has put into his tennis recently.
Since July, he has been involved in six International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He won the school boys Osborne shield for the second time in September and then went on to represent his country in Mexico at the junior Davis Cup finals.
He won his first ITF title in Stellenbosch after beating Richard Thongoane 6-1, 6-0.
In 2012 he won the Free State Key Health Dunlop series tournament in Bloemfontein, as well as the KZN Mini Masters tournament 6-0, 6-0.
Damon started playing tennis from a young age after his grandmother, Jill Benjamin, a long-time member of Toti Tennis Club, took him down to the courts to hit a ball.
At last year’s SA champs, he made the semi-finals in the U16 age group, but lost out to Jordan.
He is coached by Rowena Sanders at Westridge Tennis Stadium and is currently ranked at 287, his highest ever.
Damon left for Australia on Wednesday, 8 April where he will be coached on clay by ex-Toti tennis coach, Tony Vermaak and participate in two ITF tournaments.
