21 January 2021 | Tennis Queensland

Far from
the headlines of tennis players in hotel quarantine, Queensland clubs have been
quietly getting on with the business of hosting COVID-safe tournaments
throughout the school holidays.

Elite Tennis International at Caloundra and Tennis Gear at Nudgee shared the honour and the dates for the resumption of Australian ranking tournaments in Queensland on January 12, following a 10 month hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic and necessary protocols.

More than
10 grassroot and pathway tournaments will be held in Queensland in 2021 before
the official Australian “summer series” even begins, demonstrating the strength
of the tournament landscape across the state.

Tennis Queensland Match Play manager, Marc Wittmann is impressed with the number of players entering competitions already this year.

“We are
seeing strong entries at our events. In the first week of tournaments we
recorded an increase of participants by 40% compared to last year. Players are
really embracing the opportunity to compete again and reap the rewards from all
of the training they put in during some of the competition downtime we had in
2020.”

Tennis Queensland Chief Executive, Mark Handley says tennis is coming through the challenges presented to us by the pandemic with creativity, innovation and passion.

“Clubs and
tournament officials did a great job last year in providing what they could in
terms of competitive opportunities and we have seen new events spring up as a
result. There is a pilot teams event happening in the Metro region, the UTR has
been embraced by organisers and players and up in the North, there was a new
event called, the Covid Cup”, Mr Handley said.

“The tennis
community in Queensland is resilient and ready to make the most of the interest
in one of the most naturally Covid safe sports there is”.

Elite
Tennis International’s Australian Ranking tournament at the Sunshine Coast
Regional Tennis Centre attracted players from as far as Rockhampton and New
South Wales.

Tournament Director, Matt Deverson, said it was fantastic to be back.

“We got
straight back into the routine and everything was back to normal, except for
the extra Covid safety measures we had in place like social distancing and
scanning in everyone.”

“We had 121
players involved and completed 220 matches and you could see that everyone had
really been training hard, they came here sharp and the quality of the finals
was right up there”.

Click for more information on the Queensland tournament calendar.