Van Heerden Rises to Junior Tennis Title Challenge

Marli van Heerden, a learner from Outeniqua High school in George, produced one of her finest career performances when she trounced the second seeded Rikeetha Pereira of India 6-3 6-0 in their quarterfinal clash, to emerge as the last South African still in the SAS Junior ITF 11 tournament in Coetzenburg, Stellenbosch, on Wednesday.

After a shaky start, the fifth-seeded van Heerden decided that attack was the best form of defence, and her aggressive approach in the later first-set games floored her Indian opponent.

Van Heerden ran up a 5-0 lead in the first and then strangely dropped back-to-back two service games, allowing the Indian visitor to get a sniff at 5-3. “I realised at that stage that I needed to adjust and I decided that I’ll play aggressively,” said van Heerden.

“I started banging in the first serves and it took her by surprise. Attacking at every opportunity seemed the way to go and that’s the frame of mind I went into the second set.

“I think the pressure was just too much for her and she double-faulted a few times in the second set. I was returned very well by that time so her serve suffered,” said van Heerden.

Van Heerden has been campaigning at mostly high altitude venues in recent months, and she arrived at the Stellenbosch event a few days earlier to adjust her game.

“It’s always a good idea to get some practise in a few days before the start of an event, when you move from high to coastal altitude. There’s always the danger of over-hitting at the coast, and it was worth coming down a few days earlier.”

On the adjacent court, South African top seed Janet Koch ended up on the also-rans scrapheap after she was shocked by Serbian Vanja Klaric, the eighth seed. Klaric, who was born to Serbian parents in Botswana, won 5-7 6-3 6-3 to reach Thursday’s semifinal round.

(With editing by gsport)