PAPUA New Guinea Tennis Association (PNGTA) has made waves this year through its junior national team’s participation in regional and local tournaments.

This year started off with the 2024 PNG Junior Open Championships hosted at the Port Moresby Racquets Club registering over 50 juniors from Port Moresby, Lae, Goroka including a few Australian based.

Under leadership of president Barbara Stubbings, this tournament was crucial for PNG to name the next junior national team that attended the West Pacific Regional Championship in Lautoka Fiji in April.

The selected Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) sponsored junior national team progressed to compete in Fiji and saw incredible results with the Timothy Koliwan, Andrew Aisi and River-Jordan Hakena claim silver medals for the PNG U12 Boys team matches.

Tennis prodigy, Colita Hakena defended her U14 Girls title int he WRPC tournament while Pacific Games bronze medalist Pauline Hyun claimed her first U16 Girls singles title and a silver medal in the doubles with team mate Nepheline Leah won silver medal in the U16 Girls Doubles among others.

In June a team of juniors were sent to represent PNG and compete int he Oceania Tennis Federation (OTF) sanctioned Nations Cup in Pago Pago, American Samoa.

At the end of the month, Aisi and Hakena (Colita) travelled over to Australia where they competed in the Australian team Championships ahead of the 2024 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Fiji.

Eight selected juniors from the WRPC tournament then flew over to Fiji in July and competed in the POJC that yet again great results while Colita retained her U14 Girls Oceania title while representing the West Pacific Region, Hyun settled for silver after a tough final against her opponent from Cook Islands. The majority of the team was comprised of PNG junior athletes.

In local tournaments Lae Tennis Association hosted the Panamex Lae Tennis Open 2024 tournament that saw veteran Ivuyo Lavu and Martina Asimba claim the Men’s and Women’s singles title back in June.

Another tournament was the Skel Rice Junior competition that was hosted in Port Moresby and saw a good entry of juniors.

The Port Moresby Open was hosted in August and also saw a big entry of players from juniors through to seniors and masters.  POM Open saw siblings Colita and older brother Sugar-Ray Hakena claim their first opens titles at the POMRC Courts.

At the POMRC a plaque was unveiled in remembrance of veteran coach Late Kwalam Apisah, BEM. He was coach and dad to Pacific Tennis champ Abigail Tere-Apisah.

In administrative duties 21-year old Lorraine Kaiulo was selected to represent PNG at the Pacific Women Leaders in Tennis (PWLiT) program in Nadi Fiji, she has been outstanding in administrative duties despite having younger represent PNG at the regional tournaments.  In November two individuals Martina Asimba and Omega Ivuyo obtained their Level 1 ITF coaching certificates after attending the course through OTF/Pacific AusSports program.

Additionally Tennis in Lae in climbing with massive interest through its development program, a success on its own that saw the association send three juniors to rep PNG in the last two years and two more by Jan 2025.

They hosted corporate tournaments, doubles and singles before ending the year with the Lewa Lae Junior Tennis Championship that saw a massive entry and good competition in December.

It has been a fruitful year for PNG Tennis however training is still continuing for the new KPHL PNG Junior team as they prepare to serve off first tournament of the year in January 2025.