Paarl duo fight hard for tennis title
2006-02-09
A TENNIS duo of Paarl pulled off an amazing victory when they won the mixed doubles during the first tournament of the Peugeot Mixed Doubles Tennis Series.
The tournament that kicked off in Durbanville recently was the first of the series’ 23 matches to be played in Southern Africa in the next few months.
In a thrilling final, Sakkie Nel and Eln Prinsloo (Paarl Tennis Club) narrowly defeated Deon Meyer (Bredasdorp) and Ilse Simon (Worcester) 5/7, 1/7, 7/5, 7/3 and 9/7.
It was a dream final, with the power game of Meyer and Simon pitted against the strategic groundstrokes of Nel and the experience of Prinsloo.
But the day belonged to Nel, who three years ago had been left for dead in a horrific motor car accident. With massive head injuries, doctors gave him almost zero chance of survival.
Somehow he regained consciousness in intensive care, and slowly regained his sight, memory and motor control.
But progress was painfully slow for the tennis-playing civil engineering student who couldn’t even recognise his parents, let alone read his textbooks.
His father talked him into going back to his tennis club to try to hit a few balls. Eln was one of the players who worked long and hard with Sakkie.
It was she who talked him into playing the Rencontres Peugeot Roland Garros this year.
"I was nervous about letting her down," says Nel. "My eyes are still not perfect and I struggle to see a fast bouncing ball."
The couple battled through the qualifying rounds and eventually came up against Meyer and Simon in the final.
It looked like a one horse race with Meyer and Simon comfortably taking the first two tie-breaker sets 7/5 and 7/1.
"They were killing us," said Sakkie. "When it got to 4/2 in the third, I knew we were history. Then I thought, come on Sakkie, you’ve come back from the dead once before, you can bloody well do it again!”
A masterly cross-court backhand from Nel seemed to check the momentum of Meyer and Simon, who inexplicably lost the next two sets, setting up a thrilling final.
It went to 6/6, then 7/7, then 8/7 to Nel and Prinsloo.
Finally, Meyer faltered, serving his first double-fault of the day and Nel and Prinsloo emerged as stunned champions.
“This was the biggest resurrection since Easter Sunday,” said a delighted Nel.
He and Prinsloo have qualified for the national final to be held in Johannesburg on 6 and 7 May.
The winners will be flown to Paris, courtesy of Air France, to attend the French Open at Roland Garros.
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