Lilly takes under 18 Waikato title

Seventeen-year-old Cook Islands tennis star Lillian Maui trumped scores of contenders from New Zealand and the Pacific to win the under 18 champions title at the Waikato Junior Tennis Championships in Hamilton last week.

The Tereora College student won the highest age group singles title at the popular tournament in a continuation of the good form and success she has displayed in recent months.

She recently won the Cook Islands open mens title after being elevated to the mens competition because there are no local female players up to her standard.

Maui was the pride of the 18-member junior squad currently competing in New Zealand and travelling with a group of nearly 30 Cook Islanders.

From the Waikato championships, which ended yesterday, the party now travels to Gisborne to compete in the annual Poverty Bay Junior Tennis Championships running from December 14 to 19.

Maui, the shy and popular local champion, is a member of the Tamariki Manuia dance troupe and also plays netball and volleyball in Rarotonga.

Her success means she will now make the Pacific Oceania All Stars Tennis Team and will travel throughout the region, including to Australia, for training and competitions.

Coach Malcolm Kajer was thrilled with her achievement and said it was a first for a female junior elite squad member from the Cook Islands to reach such a high level of tennis.

Following last years Waikato tournament in which Maui made the semi-finals, she competed this year as a seeded player and went straight through to the second round where she faced the number three seed, Zita Clark, whom she beat in the 2010 quarter-finals.

In the under 18 final, Maui made a nervous start feeling the pressure against Alexandra Howe, the number one seed. However, Maui found composure and turned the tables on her rival. She dominated in the second set (6-3) and took advantage as Howe fell apart, winning the third set 6-2. Coach Kajer and junior boys players showed their jubilation by singing and dancing on the courtside in celebration.

Kajer attributed Mauis success to her self-control and her high level of fitness, which showed during long rallies as she overcame all efforts by Howe to gain the upper hand.

In the doubles, teaming with a Hawkes Bay girl, Maui made the semi-final.

At the 2010 Waikato tournament Maui was second in the under 16s and winner of the under 18 consolation draw. At the Auckland Christmas tournament last year she made the semi-final.

Kajer predicts Maui will continue to notch up titles as she pursues her passion for tennis, sticks to her elite training programme and serves as the senior junior womens leader and as a fine example to the squad.