By Ben Ahenda    
       
Victoria Tennis Club amassed 200 points to win the inaugural Safaricom Nakuru Open Tennis Championships at Rift Valley Sports Club.

Greensteds International School finished second with 180 points during the two-day championship at the weekend.

In the Under-18 boy’s category, which was played on a round robin, Ricky Omondi of Victoria Academy won in Pool A after posting three wins, followed by Remi Tuyaerts of Greensteds with two and Dennis Mabiria with one.

Adrian Van of Greensted led Pool ‘B’ with three victories followed by Nerville Omondi with two, while Dickens Wanyonyi and Abdi Kafar tied after winning one match a piece.

Won title
Ricky won the Under-18 championships title after he beat  Van 6-3 and 6-1 in the finals.
Ricky defeated Nerville 4-3 in the semis as Van beat Tuyaerts 4-1.  Ricky also won the Under-14 title followed by Collins Odhiambo and Dickens Wanyonyi.

In the Under-16 category, Stephen Mizero won the title followed by Kevin Vana and Kafar.
In the Under-12 category, David Kituko was the winner followed by Edward Rogers and Sammy Nyakiamo of Greensteds.

Austin Otieno won the Under-10 category title followed by Steve Powell and Hesbon Muyeya.
In the Under-18 doubles, the pair of Ricky and Nerville defeated Tuyaerts and Van 6-4 in the finals.

Runner up
The pair of Mabiria and Dickens Wanyonyi defeated Gershom Erup and Stephan Mizero 6-2 and 6-2.

In the girls’ Under-14 doubles, the pair of Linda Janet and Maureen Makhungu of Victoria defeated Esther Lyatuu and Sanam Shah 6-0.

In the Under-12 girls’ category, Makhungu won followed by Teresa Anyango and Hellen Atieno.

Janet won the Under-14 category with Makhungu being the runner up.

This is the first event sponsored by Safaricom, which Victoria Tennis Academy in partnership with Amani Na Upendo Development Group organised in Nakuru and will spread to Kisumu, Eldoret, Kakamega and Mumias.

Victoria Academy Director Collins Agwanda thanked mobile telephone service provider Safaricom Limited for their continued support to tennis development since 2009 when Victoria  Academy and Amani Na Upendo started their tennis partnership.

The two groups are currently running tennis programmes for 2,000 less fortunate children across Western Kenya in public primary and secondary schools.