Ritger wins debut

Playing in her first Northern Nevada Junior Satellite Tournament, Amelia Ritger, 12, won the girls' 14 challenger division at the Lakeridge Tennis Club in Reno recently.

Ritger came out breathing fire in the first two rounds, winning by identical match scores of 6-0, 6-0 against seasoned competitors.

In the semifinals, she came away with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-0 tiebreaker) victory over the No. 2 seed.

In the finals, she beat No. 1 seed Hailey Llop of Reno 6-1, 6-1.

Nick Goodner, 7, came in second in the boys' 10 challenger bracket. He lost in the finals 3-8 to an opponent who turned out to be 11 years old. The bracket winner should have been competing in the 12-year-old division.

In the inter-mountain section, which is comprised of players from six states, Robert Shawhan, 15, ended his stint in the 14 division ranked No. 10.

At a recent 16 division event in Las Vegas, he won his first match against the No. 42 ranked player 6-0, 6-2.

In the next round, Shawhan went up against a top-10 player. He lost the first set 0-6 and trailed in the second 0-3 but fought back to tie the score at 5 before losing 5-7.

-- Bill Welch is The Record-Courier's tennis columnist. He can be reached at 782-5775.