Brooke Candy gave herself an early birthday present when she sealed overall success in the Wairarapa closed regional one women's singles tennis championship on Tuesday.
Candy, who turned 16 today, beat her Masterton clubmate Charlotte Mossman 6-0, 6-3 at Wairarapa College in what was the last of the round robin games
to win her first regional one title of any description with an unbeaten record.
Candy admitted to being surprised by her victory, especially the win she achieved over top seed Zoe Schofield (Gladstone) in her penultimate game at Carterton on Sunday.
Schofield and Candy had met several times, with Schofield always having the edge, but on this occasion it was Candy who triumphed _ though not by much. She won the first set 7-6 and Schofield the second 6-4 to take the match into a super tie-breaker, in which Candy outlasted her opponent 12-10.
''I honestly didn't think I could beat Zoe, she's always dominated me before,'' Candy said. ''It was nail-biting, I was pretty lucky to get there.''
Candy said playing at regional one level this season had helped her improve her tennis because the opposition was of a consistently higher standard than in regional two. ''You have to work hard for every point and that makes you think about your game more,'' she said.
In spite of her latest success, the Wairarapa under-16 representative isn't dreaming of making tennis her career, saying she played more for enjoyment than anything else and that was always likely to be the case.
''I just try to do the best I can whatever the match, winning is a bonus,'' Candy said.
