Rising Stars 6 Nov 2012

 

Goodwood Tennis Club has star juniors coming through its ranks – Amber Marshall, Brooke Milner and Nikki Milner

This article is courtesy of: Matt Turner, Eastern Courier Messenger, November 06, 2012 9:59AM
Picture: Noelle Bobrige Source: adelaidenow

GOODWOOD Saints Tennis Club is proving a breeding ground for future stars. Four Saints juniors – Amber Marshall, 11, Nikki Milner, 13, Brooke Milner, 14, and David Abfalter, 12 – are shining both in SA and on the national stage.

The quartet is ranked in the top five in SA tennis for their age, while Amber is the No.1 ranked 11-year-old in Australia. Last month David and Amber dropped just one match between them as members of the SA team which finished second in the Bruce Cup – a national boys and girls 12-and-under competition. Brooke played her first International Tennis Federation junior tournament last month in Sydney and has also stepped up to the Saints’ senior women’s pennant team where she is undefeated.

Goodwood president David Fabbro said the quartet headlined the club’s most talented crop of juniors in many years.

“We have some of the best juniors in the country,” Fabbro said. “The current crop is at least as good, if not better, than (what the club has had) the last 10 or 20 years. “Those four (Amber, Nikki, Brooke and David) are probably our foremost players but beneath them there are a lot of up-and-coming juniors and success is breeding success.”

Tennis Australia talent development coach Ben Milner, the father of Brooke and Nikki, said the four juniors had tremendous potential.

“They’re all prepared to put in the hours and hard work,” said Milner, also a coach at Goodwood. “At the moment they’re ticking all the boxes and doing the right things so we’ve got really high hopes for them.”