A rising Samoan tennis star has won the Under 16 category of the Pacific Oceania Junior Championship and the overall Best Female Athlete award of the tournament.
Mahinarangi (Mahina) Warren beat Tahiti’s No 1 seeded player by two straight sets in the final, 6-3, 6-3.
In the semi-final Ms Warren was too strong for Samoa’s Roslyn Tupuola taking the match 6-0, 6-0.
The competition saw the best of the north and eastern Pacific come together in Fiji over the past weekend
Last December, Ms Warren was selected to represent the Oceania Tennis Federation at one of the most prestigious junior tennis tournaments in the world.
Mahinarangi travelled to the United States to compete in the Junior Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships held in Florida between 12-21 December 2021.
At just 15, the former student of Vaiala Beach School in Samoa is a Saint Kentigern tennis scholarship student who had trained in Waikato during Covid-19 lockdowns with Pete Hoglund of Kiwi Tennis and Jason Wheadon of Sweat Personal Training.
Mahinarangi first picked up a tennis racket at age six, and the foundations of her steady development has been the result of the hard work and skill of her first tennis coaches in Samoa, Yvonne Carruthers and her daughter Steffi Carruthers.
Ms Warren is currently ranked third overall in New Zealand for her age group.
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