Rising Albany tennis stars Denby Sharpe and Tea Zizek win silver for WA at School Sport Australia’s Bruce Cup

Young Albany tennis sensations Tea Zizek and Denby Sharpe helped WA clinch a silver medal at School Sport Australia’s Bruce Cup in Darwin last month.

The pair, who play out of Albany’s OnCourt Tennis program, played key roles in the week-long tournament held between August 17-24, winning most of their games to help WA climb onto the podium.

WA defeated arch-rivals Victoria 19-5 before seeing off a challenge from NSW prevailing 16-8 to sew up the second spot.

Zizek was one of the standout performers at the under-12 interstate round-robin tournament, winning 84 per cent of her matches.

She dropped just four sets across all 19 of her matches and was only defeated once in her six singles matches.

Sharpe overcame a slow start to the tournament before a blistering finish where he won his last 10 matches which included three straight-sets singles victories.

After losing seven of his first nine matches, the young gun found his rhythm in the last three days, dispatching each of his singles rivals, dropping just one game across six sets.

Tour leader Andrea Rundle said the pair were a glowing advertisement for regional tennis and showed brilliant mental fortitude in trying conditions.

“They both did so well and were outstanding for the whole week,” she said.

“We haven’t had many country kids in the last few years so it’s its really good to have regional representation.

“It’s probably the most determined team I’ve taken away in a long time.

“It was very long 12-hour days of tennis in very hot weather and it was so exhausting but they just went to battle so well.”