{"id":19802,"date":"2019-01-22T10:15:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T23:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/?p=19802"},"modified":"2020-07-06T10:23:50","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T00:23:50","slug":"goulburn-reign-supreme-in-bendigo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/news\/2019\/01\/22\/goulburn-reign-supreme-in-bendigo","title":{"rendered":"Goulburn reign supreme in Bendigo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goulburn is celebrating following their win in the 63rd<\/sup> Inter-regional Country Championships at the Fosterville Gold Tennis Centre in Bendigo \u2013 marking the region\u2019s third consecutive title.<\/p>\n

Goulburn finished in top spot on 253.75 points ahead of Loddon Campaspe (221) and Barwon (220.25).<\/p>\n

The event was struck with all types of weather delays. Early starts and late finishes were needed to get through the more than 500 matches.<\/p>\n

Tennis Victoria Tournaments and Events Manager, Andrew Reynolds was full of praise for Goulburn and congratulated them on their efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was just a wonderful result and we\u2019d all like to congratulate Goulburn on their victory,\u201d Reynolds said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know what a special event this is and the high esteem it\u2019s held in by everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would also like to thank every player and volunteer for their immeasurable work towards making this another successful Inter-regionals event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year was played in such good spirits and sportsmanship was very much the highlight, which was extremely pleasing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Goulburn team manager, Heather Lees, was ecstatic with the final result and couldn\u2019t be happier for all the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot. Goulburn has never done it before [winning three in a row],\u201d Lees said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we did win two years ago we hadn\u2019t won for 53 years so to win three in a row is very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goulburn team captain, David Starling, wanted to take an opportunity to thank Lees for her outstanding contribution to the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone who plays for Goulburn loves Heather and everyone who plays has that little bit extra to give because we love her so much,\u201d Starling said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just encompasses what tennis is all about.\u201dThe Fosterville Gold Tennis Centre put on a stellar show with players enjoying the many initiatives on offer to them.<\/p>\n

The Open singles categories proved highly entertaining with top seeds Eliza Long (Loddon Campaspe) and Matthew Hicks (Barwon) taking out the titles.<\/p>\n

Long was pushed all the way in her quest for a fourth consecutive title against Barwon\u2019s Nicole Mullen 6\/2 3\/6 10-6. The 2019 champion acknowledge her opponent\u2019s efforts after the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe [Mullen] is a really great ball striker and I was thankful I got through,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Playing for my region] is the main drive for me, it\u2019s a nice difference not being out there as an individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to play in front of everyone I live with. Friends and family came to watch me today so I guess I\u2019ll put this [win] at the top,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hicks did win his final in straight sets, however, was challenged in the first set before cruising to victory 7\/5 6\/2. The win cemented Hick\u2019s dominance over the category lifting his sixth (08, 14\u201317 and 19) trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good to get the win, it\u2019s always hard playing someone from the same region,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made my debut at under 12s here in \u201995 and this [tournament] would be my twentieth. It\u2019s great that all the regions can come together and support each other, it\u2019s just a great team atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the full list of results from the 63rd<\/sup> Inter-regional Country Championships, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To view the photo album of winners and runner ups, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goulburn claim third consecutive Inter-regional Country Championships title<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6038,"featured_media":19806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-19802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}