The NEXIA BT European U-16 tournament at the Vittoriosa Lawn Tennis Club came to a close recently.

The tournament, held in collaboration with the Malta Tennis Federation, was sponsored by NEXIA BT, a local consultancy and auditing firm which forms part of Nexia International, a worldwide network of independent auditors, business advisers and consultants.

Young players from Italy, Austria, Germany, Greece and Cyprus, as well as a good number of Russians and Ukrainian youngsters took part in the competition.

The Maltese players taking part were Raphael Sammut, Matthew Cassar Torregiani, Zack Ciappara, Mark Schranz, Alexia Cassar, Katrina Sammut and Bettina Booker.

The tournament witnessed a week of high quality and entertaining tennis. In the boys’ final Andreas Aravis of Cyprus got the better of Stylianos Perdikogiannis of Greece in a hard-fought encounter described by Dr Mohab Fahmi, referee of the tournament, as “characterised by the highest quality tennis that Malta has seen for a very long time”.

The strokes, especially baseline strokes, were consistent and strong which created a balanced match as was shown by the 7-5, 7-6 score. It was also indicative of how enjoyable it was to the viewing public.

The girls’ singles final was an Austrian affair which saw Sandra Fiedl overcome compatriot Lisa Friess 6-4, 6-2.

The boys’ doubles went to the Cypriot Neos Elftherios and Stylianos Perdikogiannis who got the better of the Russian tandem Sergey Schetinin and Nicolay Kolobayev 6-3, 7-5.

The final of the girls’ doubles was another keenly contested encounter in which Elena de Santis of Italy and Lisa Friess of Austria beat the Ausrian duo Sandra Friedl and Nicole Kadlec 3-6, 6-2, 10-8.

The presentation of trophies was made by Brian Tonna, managing partner of NEXIA BT in the presence of Paul Micallef, VLTC president and Francis Sciberras, director of European tournaments at VLTC.