THE INAUGURAL SUNSHINE COAST SENIORS TENNIS TOURNAMENT

(posted Sep-2008)   Alan Hocking

The inaugural seniors tennis tournament on the weekend of 19th-22nd September, organized by Tennis Seniors Queensland as the second ITF ranking tournament in the State, was a great success with participants from around Australia and overseas playing.

 
There were 194 players participating in the tournament with ten Australian representatives, players who competed on the international circuit and an ex Davis Cup player who represented Thailand, and the number one player in his age group from Japan.

  Click for photos from the event

The Tewantin Tennis Club was the host venue for this event, but with the large number of entries some matches were played at Noosa Tennis Club and Noosa Springs Tennis Club.

 
The Tewantin Tennis Club provided excellent facilities in a unique bush land setting. This was the first major tournament organised by the club and it is a credit to the committee for the way in which they handled this event.

Tewantin Tennis Club - excellent facilities in a unique bush land setting

As usual Gail Bates, ably assisted by Coral Vickers did a magnificent job getting this tournament up and running and are to be congratulated on a magnificent job.

Following the outstanding success of this tournament it is anticipated that this will now feature as an annual event on the senior's calendar. For the first time we now have a seniors ITF ranking tournament on the Sunshine Coast which gives local players the opportunity to compete at the highest level and obtain international ranking points.

Local Sunshine Coast players who won events in their particular age group were:-
35 men’s singles Steve Williams
40 men’s singles Jamie Fletcher
65 men’s singles Ivor Reynolds
50/55 ladies singles Fiona David
40 men’s doubles Steve Williams and Jamie Fletcher
45 men’s doubles Steve Rafter and Daniel Lane
65 men’s doubles Don Anderson

Jamie Fletcher won his final 6/3 6/0 against Michael Russell from Brisbane who has recently been named in the Australian team to play in Turkey due to a late withdrawal.

Steve Williams won from Lynton Joseph of Melbourne 6/2 6/3.

Ivor Reynolds had a long hard match and finally emerged the winner 6/4 3/6 6/4 over John S. Walker from the Gold Coast.

Fiona David had the longest match of the weekend (almost three hours) finally winning 4/6 7/5 6/3 over her opponent Roslyn Hand from the Gold Coast.

In the doubles the local pairing of Steve Williams and Jamie Fletcher won the 40 men’s doubles as did Steve Rafter and Daniel Lane in the 45 men’s doubles, although Steve and Daniel had to survive a tie breaker to get the title.

Max Bates had an inspirational win in all four events despite entering the tournament after having a knee replacement late last year. He won the 55 men’s singles 50 and 55 men’s doubles and the 55 mixed doubles. In the final of the singles he defeated Michael Clayton in a long three set match.

The full results will be available on the www.92computing.com.au website.

Results