Wimmera players enjoy Country Week tournament

Six Wimmera tennis players took to courts in Yarrawonga for the largest grass court tennis tournament in the world. More than 1290 players aged 15 to 83 years from across A ustralia and New Zealand competed in the sixday Tennis Victoria Country Week tourna ment Wimmera p layers w ere Peter Hayes, Ian Nitschke, Nick Robertson, Chris E llis, Steve Schultz an d Jeff Friberg. Hayes said the Wimmera players formed three teams with representatives from Cairns, Palm Cove, Bendigoand Geelong.

"The players from Queensland are friends with some of our Wimmera players, so that's why we all play together," he said.

"The B Special 2 team lost the semi-final to the eventual winner, whilethe other B Special team narrowly missed outon finals.

"Our thirdteam won one set forthe week. Overall, it was a really good week - it's a goodtennis event and also a good social event "

Hayes said the Wimmera started sending a team to the tournam ent about nine years ago. "We sent one team at first an d it has grown fro m there," he said. "The aver age age at the tournament is a bout 45and every year places fill - it's great for tennis. "Across the week, the Tennis Lab team restrung 85 racquets using 1032 m etres of string. Players used 2376 tennis balls. Tandara, a team from Bendigo , won the women's A Grade final and Lecontes, a team fro m Shepparton, won the men's A Grade final. It wasaback-toback win for both teams.

Claire' s Bears f rom Shepparton won the G ilchrist-pearce Cup, an award all g rades are eligible to win. It is awarded to the team w ith the highest game-winning percentagefrom all round matches.

Hayes said 204 teams were competing with four players in each team

"We have a couple of extra players in case of injuries," he said.

"There were about eight teams in each section, so we played sev en m atches before fi nals with two sets of doubles ineach m atch ''

There were 26 grades of men' s and wom en ' s tennis, played on 100 lawn courts at Yarrawonga.

" It was supposed to be hosted in Sheppartonth is year, but due to flooding last year the courts weren't ready," Hayes said.

"Next year it will be hosted at Wodonga from February 11 to 16."