Aaron – a tennis name to watch

ILAN HERRMANN

Aaron attends Herzlia School in Cape Town and trains under the tutelage of Anthony Harris at the Anthony Harris High Performance Tennis Academy. Harris, originally from Zimbabwe, spent many years in tennis development in Israel, including working closely with Dudi Sela, Israel’s highest ranked player.

Aaron has begun playing in ITF (International Tennis Federation) Junior tournaments. In these tournaments players can gain international ranking points. Just this year he played tournaments in Nairobi and Potchefstroom, but it was recently in Windhoek, in Namibia, where Aaron gained his first ITF points, winning his first round match and getting into the last 32 draw.

This gave him five ITF points and catapulted him from being ranked the ninth seed to being second in South Africa.

Next on the cards for him, is the South African circuit and the next ITF tournament which will take place in Mauritius in August, which he hopes to attend.

Aaron has managed to play at the highest level while still remaining diligent in his school work. He often has to catch up work due to tournament trips, but he does so by working extra hours and extra hard.

Harris sees huge potential in Aaron and is pushing him to try and get maximum exposure in these vital and defining teen years, ones that could shape a future career in tennis. Harris believes strongly in playing the ITF tournaments which he sees as major growth opportunities in tennis, but also in nurturing maturity and character.

To add to his silverware, Aaron was recently awarded the Soul Sport Jewish Young Athletes trophy for 2015. The Soul Sport Jewish Sports Magazine hosts a feature whereby athletes in South African Jewish day schools are recognised for their sporting achievements.

The schools’ heads of sport nominates an athlete and from this winning group Soul Sport selects an athlete that is awarded the Soul Sport Jewish Young Athletes trophy.