Causing a racket for festive season competitions
As the season nears the halfway mark, it is time to take stock of how everything is tracking. The summer sporting season can be very different to the winter sports because of the break that is forced upon it during the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
Unusually, many summer sporting competitions – and, in particular, tennis – are having to undergo a two-month hiatus while we all have our holiday break.
A select few will carry on and play in a variety of tournaments that are scattered around New Zealand during the next few weeks.
These range from the Pascoes New Zealand Championships in Auckland this month, the Maxim Wellington Open shortly after, the Aotearoa Ma¯ ori Championships and the New Zealand Lawn Championships between Christmas and the New Year.
The start of next year means the ASB Classic begin its women’s draw, with a handful of former world No 1s in attendance, closely followed by the men’s competition with an equally impressive lineup.
During this time, the New Zealand age-group championships and team championships will get under way for the 12s, 14s and 16s age groups.
Interspersed through all of these events will be a host of regional and provincial level tournaments that cater for both the social and competitive needs of the typical tennis player.
Many of these are well attended and provide a lot of opportunities, in particular, for our older tennisplaying demographic.
Masters, vets, seniors – however they describe themselves these days (I had better be careful here because I well and truly fit in this category now) – appears to be the fastest growing area in tennis these days.
Either that or I just get to hear about it a lot more now that I meet the criteria.
Every second weekend there seems to be a ‘‘seniors’’ tournament held somewhere in New Zealand, and there are many who travel from one to the other almost in a circuit-type approach.
Some of these players may have done the same thing as juniors a few moons ago, but for others this has become their hobby as other sports have become either too difficult to participate in, or simply don’t provide the same opportunities.
I get to see some of the pictures of these mostly doubles events, and I must admit they do seem to be well attended and it looks like the enjoyment level is high.
It’s not surprising, because the sports that do well are often those that are a combination of good organisation, good level competition and an integral social component.
Maybe it won’t be too long before I also become a regular on the ‘‘senior circuit’’.
Club championships begin
The region’s largest tennis club, Manawatu¯ Lawn Tennis Club, will be conducting its annual club champ finals day tomorrow. With many junior and senior representative players involved, it is bound to provide plenty of entertainment and high level tennis.
Spectators are most welcome to attend the Fitzherbert Avenue venue and will be treated to some spectacular competitive play.
Juniors events are held through the morning while the seniors finals begin from 1pm onwards.