Sarawak’s Ari Shuzo wins title at Tennis Master Junior Championship in KL

KUCHING (June 13): Up and coming junior ace Ari Shuzo Hilton Smith scored a major breakthrough when he won the Boys Under 14 singles title at the Tennis Master Junior Championship Leg 1 at the National Tennis Centre, Jalan Duta in Kuala Lumpur on June 6-9.

The 14-year-old trainee under the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) junior development programme, who was seeded number one, lived up to his top billing when he defeated Nuraidid 6-2, 6-2 in the final.

In the preliminary round, the Kuching lad won all three matches in Group A to collect six points while Nuraidid also gained six points from three wins in Group B.

Third place went to Afiq Affandi after he beat Rizq Ruffian 4-2, 4-2 in the play-off.

Ari played in several tournaments prior to the Tennis Master Junior Championship Leg 1, among which were Tennis Malaysia Junior Tour Leg 1 in Ipoh where he made it the quarterfinals, ATF 14 & Under Series in Negeri Sembilan where he finished third, 1st Perlis ATF 14 & Under Series where he finished fourth, 7th Penang ATF 14 & Under Series with a 10th placing, and Sportama ATF Under 14 W2 Jakarta, Indonesia where he finished in 19th position.

Ari’s younger brother Eli Eita Hilton Smith, 11, also produced an impressive performance in the Boys Under 12 singles at the Tennis Master Junior Championship Leg 1.

He had topped Group B after winning three matches but failed to get past Group A’s second ranked player Declan Raphael, losing 4-6, 0-6 in the semi-finals.

However, he managed to beat Akid Khalish 5-3, 0-4, 10-2 in the play-off for third and fourth positions.

The Tennis Master Junior Championship is held twice a year for the Top 8 players in their respective age groups — Under 10, Under 12, Under 14, and Under 16 — for both boys and girls.

The selection is based on ranking points accumulated by the players throughout the year and the previous year in their respective age groups awarded by Tennis Malaysia and also some points from participating in the ATF U14 tournaments held in Malaysia.

There will be another three legs of the Tennis Malaysia Junior Tour and Ari will be hoping to participate in all of them and possibly in another three ATF Under 14 tournaments to be held in Malaysia in the second half of this year.

SLTA president Datuk Patrick Liew Chin Joon was pleased with Ari’s achievement and said the SLTA junior development programme has been an ongoing activity for many years and many good juniors are coming through.

“Firstly, this programme is to keep the tennis remaining active consistently.

“Secondly, it is to entice more juniors to take up tennis as a preferred sports and thirdly, I hope to discover new talents,” he told The Borneo Post.

Liew said it was a challenging and tough journey to produce champions whereby it is very different from many other sports where to be a tennis champion, one needs consistent training, financial resources, and high endurance.

“That’s why the prize money is unbelievably high in professional tournaments. Once they become top players in the world, they instantly become rich.

“Having said that, our responsibilities as a non-governmental organisation are to continue to support any player to excel in their journey. Nevertheless, we really need big support from the government and sports authorities as well as private sponsorship and parental commitment, failing in which it is an impossible mission,” added Liew.