Kuhn, who now resides in George in the Western Cape where he is busy studying at the Nelson Mandela University, came up especially for the tournament in order to secure one of the top rankings heading into the Jarvis Kaplan Cup later in the year.

Kuhn was the top seeded heading into the tournament and did not fail to deliver. In the final match of the tournament on Sunday afternoon, Kuhn came from a game down to beat the experienced Tremayne McDonald for a 3-1 victory. This sees Kuhn set to head to the Jarvis Kaplan Cup as the top-ranked player for the Free State.

The penultimate match was a fine display of skill by Garrett Amm, and a show of guts and determination by the youngster, Keegan Waugh, for the 3rd and 4th ranking. Amm was masterful in his ability of being able to make the court appear a lot smaller than what it is and managed to beat just about every drop-shot Waugh executed. Waugh, in his turn, produced moments of absolute brilliance and had his execution not let him down from time to time, the result have been a lot tighter.

Ultimately, Amm outclassed the more experienced Waugh, however, the youngster is truly an exciting prospect and many titles will be heading his way in the future.

The women's competition comprised six players and was won by Izane Louw after beating Hesmine du Plessis in the final match on Sunday.

The 2018 Jarvis Kaplan Cup in Johannesburg will be taking place from 9 to 13 July.

Final rankings:

A Section Top 10: 1 John Kuhn, 2 Tremayne McDonald, 3 Garrett Amm, 4 Keegan Waugh, 5 Kyle Kitching, 6 Richard Rodrigues, 7 Riaan Knoetze, 8 Johan van Rooyen, 9 Lenny Kretzmann, 10 Ruan Metz.

B Section Top 10: 1 Pieter Bekker, 2 Waldie van Heerden, 3 Ben Kotze, 4 Schalk van der Vyfer, 5 Herman Winkler, 6 Tony Kyriacou, 7 Ian du Plessis, 8 Shameen Moosa, 9 Ismael Daniels, 10 PJ Burger.

Women's section: 1 Izane Louw, 2 Inge Coetzee, 3 Hesmine du Plessis, 4 Tristen Lourens, 5 Nateska Kretzmann.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport