The Southern Ports Tennis Association kicked off its inaugural junior tennis competition on the weekend.

Millicent/Beachport and Kingston joined Naracoorte and Lucindale for junior competition tennis, delighting organisers with the growing interest in junior tennis throughout the region.

Kingston was a buzzing place to be early Saturday morning when it hosted Naracoorte Red, with some older juniors checking out the action along with coach Dean Goldsworthy, who is sure to have some feedback for the players this week.

All the youngsters had a good hit and enjoyed their matches.

The Rasheed siblings combined well to take their doubles to the tie-break, getting the win over Alice Redding and Harrison Andrews in the closest match of the day.

While the sets went in favour of Kingston winning 6-8, the tally indicated matches were fairly close, Kingston coming away with a 39-30 win.

Millicent hosted a strong Naracoorte White outfit and while it was a one-sided result on the scoresheet, it was such an exciting morning for Millicent to be back playing junior tennis after a long hiatus, with Melissa McGrath receiving praise for her work in putting the team together.

The quality of tennis was not reflected in the scores, with plenty of rallies seen across the courts and many smiles on all the players’ faces.

All players showed excellent sportsmanship and Naracoorte was commended for their leadership and showing the new Millicent juniors how it is done. Naracoorte White 48 def Millicent 2.

It was a great start to the tennis season on the fabulous new courts at Naracoorte Tennis Club.

The Naracoorte/Padthaway Blues hosted Lucindale Roos in a close match that was tight from the beginning.

Naracoorte/Padthaway Blues started strong taking the lead with two doubles to one.

There was a huge tussle at the top of the rankings with Toby Longbottom defeating Paige Pinchbeck in a tight match 6-4.

Harry Robinson just held off Digby McGreggor 8-6 in the tie-breaker. Naracoorte/Padthaway Blue won the day 37 games to 35.

Naracoorte/Padthaway Yellow also hosted Lucindale with the Koalas heading up to play on the new blue courts.

There was some high-quality tennis, with great rallies across all the courts.

Koalas took the lead early, winning the first three sets, however Naracoorte/Padthaway Yellow did not drop their heads and put up some fight to take two sets to tie-breaks and a third all the way to 5-7.

Vander Maywald and Ned Ward played a great singles match, with Vander just having his way in the tie-break. The final score was 48 games to 33.