With the Australian Open kicking off this week it means it’s the start of tennis season again in Mount Gambier.
Leading into the Aus Open several locals have been well involved in the summer of tennis with Andrew ven den Hurk and Joanne Sealey competing in the Australian Seniors Tennis Championship in Adelaide.
Also in Adelaide is Mount Gambier player Ben Gregory who has been at the Adelaide International Tennis Tournament, working as a ballkid.
With great weather in town the Olympic Park courts have been getting a workout with players getting ready to get back into tennis form before the season commences.
This weekend the Mount Gambier and District Tennis Association will host its senior mixed doubles tournament at the Olympic Park courts, with entries closing tomorrow.
Mount Gambier and District Tennis Association President Cassie Edwards said the majority of local tennis activities will commence when school resumes at the end of the month.
“Once school goes back there will be Red Ball Rumble if there’s interest again,” she said.
“I will be running the Hot Shots programs again on Thursdays like last term, so pretty much everything starts back up when school does.”
With player numbers down across the association, Edwards hopes that once Olympic Park’s new lights are installed the association will look to start up some mid-week tennis action.
“At this stage we hope that by next season we will have our lights arrived and we will hope by the end of the season get the lights up and running,” she said.
“Then next season we will try and get the social things we used to run mid-week like the social and division 1 fast 4.
“And we currently have in mind what we could possibly do during the week to utilise the lights, so next season fingers crossed the lights are up and working and we will be able to implement some more programs during the week for people to play which will be really good.”
The Mount Gambier and District Tennis Association season will resume on February 1 with the Baker and Ey Shield scheduled for two weeks later.
