10 January 2025 | Tennis Victoria

We have crowned the winner of our 69th Inter-Regional Country Championships for 2025 as Barwon Region. We had 7 country regions comprising of over 220 players all descend on Mt Prospect Tennis Association in Creswick. The club had presented their venue in amazing fashion with the 16 grass courts and 7 hard courts in incredible condition for play to start on the first day.

The success of the event was a credit to the army of volunteers, with the Mt Prospect Tennis Association President commenting “on behalf of the association, I’d like to congratulate everyone on a successful 69th Inter-Regionals Country Championships. A special thanks to our greenkeeper, Gary Lindsay, for his incredible efforts in maintaining the grass courts and facilities.”

Tennis Victoria’s CEO, Kim Kachel, attended Day 1 of the event to deliver the official welcome and opening remarks. Kim praised the venue and the event, highlighting the unique format that brings together juniors and seniors to compete in a team environment. He described it as an outstanding way to showcase tennis in Regional Victoria.

Kim said, “this event is a crucial part of the pathway for juniors and may mean they go on to represent their region at the 2025 Pat Cash Cup. Team events like these are brilliant for tennis. It’s always an honour and a privilege to represent your region, state or country and congratulations to all athletes and team managers representing their regions.”

Junior and senior players alike, battled through 3 days of tennis in extreme heat conditions competing in singles, doubles and mixed events. Barwon Region was ultimately successful and held up the trophy, going back-to-back after winning the 2024 event this time last year in Benalla. Barwon had a strong hold on the open events this year after taking out both the Open Men & Women’s singles as well as both double events and the mixed. Nicole Mullen took home her first Women’s Open title defeating fellow state grade teammate Olivia Ryan in straight sets. Matt Hicks took home his 7th Men’s Open Title after defeating Max Phillips in two close sets. Matt won his first open singles title in 2008, 30 years after his debut at Inter-Regionals in Mildura, where he claimed victory in the singles.

A big shout-out to South West for finishing second overall! They fielded an incredibly strong team despite having a smaller pool of players compared to Barwon, Goulburn, Loddon Campaspe, and Central Highlands. A huge thank you to the South West team, especially Sharni McNamara, whose continuous support and promotion of Tennis Victoria events are clearly paying off, as reflected in the excellent results and the strong engagement from the entire region.

Event by numbers

• 501 matches were played

• Over 1000 tennis balls used

• Over 3507 changes of ends

• Over 300 salad rolls

• Over 360 sausages in bread

• 100 pizzas and over 250 burgers from food trucks

Some other notable results

• Recent Victorian State Masters Winner of the 14/U girl’s singles and doubles events in Bendigo, Willow Kelly took out the girls 16/U singles & doubles for Loddon Campaspe.
• Willow defeated Adele Joseph from Wimmera who also recently completed in the 16/U Nationals at Bendigo.
• Hudson Greene from South West took out all 3 events he played in, 14/U singles, doubles with Roy Savage & mixed with Adele McNamara.
• Toby Coutts from South West took out all 3 events he played in, 18/U singles, doubles with Harry Mcleod & mixed with Grace Biggs.
• Daniele Bowles from Loddon Campaspe took out all 3 events she played in, 30-49 singles, doubles with Bronwyn Osborne & mixed with Jayd Davis.

Our next Teams Event for juniors is the State Teams Championships (Pat Cash Cup) which is being held in Horsham on March 29 & 30. We hope to see as many regional junior players involved in this statewide event as possible.  The venue for the 2026 Inter-Regionals Country Championships will be announced soon, so keep your eyes out for more information to come. We are already looking forward to next year!

Final Points Tally

Barwon – 306

South West – 240

Wimmera – 232

Loddon Campaspe – 205

Mornington – 173

Central Highlands – 170

Goulburn – 98