Young tennis gun Louis Clark has taken out the New Year Open at Ballina, sweeping aside a player 10 years his senior in the final.
Clark, 18, defeated Melbourne 28-year-old Cameron Leitch in the final, winning 6–2 6–0 in an hour and 20 minutes.
The win provides a perfect start to 2018 for the Suffolk Park resident, who will now play a series of pro tour events across Australia and Asia.
Despite losing just two games in the final, Clark said it was a keenly contested match.
‘The score didn’t really indicate how the match went,’ he said.
‘There were a lot of close games. If he’d won those it could have been very different.’
Clark’s serve was a key weapon throughout the tournament, helping him to victories over strong opponents in the quarter and semifinals.
In the women’s final, Gold Coast sixth seed Shannon Beckett defeated fourth seed Georgia Townsend 6–4 6–1.
