Melbourne, Australia, 19 November 2013 | aoblitz.com.au

The New South Wales community of Kendall has served up a challenge to towns across Australia as the early leader in the AO Blitz competition.

Kendall currently sits on top of the AO Blitz town leader board, released today, and is in prime position to get allocated the highest-ranked player at Australian Open 2014 to represent the town as a reward.

It faces fierce competition from fellow New South Wales community Parkes, which sits in second place and broke a world record at the town’s AO Blitz activation at the weekend.

Victorian town Melton South sits in third place, holding a slender 0.29% lead over Queensland town Cooroy.

The competition is so close that only a few percentage points separate many of the leading towns, which all bodes well for an exciting finish to the biggest online tennis competition ever run in Australia.

Kendall Tennis Club president Wendy Hudson said their community had really embraced the AO Blitz competition and was thrilled to see their ranking was so high.

“Our community loves its tennis. We’ve got a high membership for a small club – we have 260 members and only three courts,” she said.

“The whole community is behind this competition and we’ve been promoting it since it started. The club’s aim has been to be in the top 10 so we can get a top five player at the Australian Open.”

Tennis power

The town leaderboard is based on a tennis power, which is calculated on AO Blitz points earned as well as taking into account population size and entrant numbers. This tennis power will continue to update as challenges are completed until the competition ends on 31 December.

The final rankings will determine each town’s fate in the competition, with the top 256 ranked towns to be allocated an Australian Open competitor to represent them during the 2014 tournament. Players will be allocated on rankings, meaning the top players will be representing the top-ranked towns.

The town in top position when the competition closes will have the choice of being represented by the No.1 ranked male in the world, or the top-ranked female.

With five weeks left in the competition, there is still plenty of time for individuals, clubs and schools to keep competing challenges to earn points for their town. Every single point counts more than ever and will help build a town’s tennis power as well as an individual’s own points tally.

Just by registering, people win points and go into the draw to take home a Kia Sportage. This week is the Rally Monster bonus, which gives people the chance to earn a huge 50,000 points for their town. There is also the brand new Court Hog challenge for clubs and schools.

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