{"id":42342,"date":"2025-06-24T11:45:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T01:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/?p=42342"},"modified":"2025-06-24T11:45:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T01:45:28","slug":"victorian-indigenous-tennis-carnival-serves-up-spirit-talent-and-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/news\/2025\/06\/24\/victorian-indigenous-tennis-carnival-serves-up-spirit-talent-and-community","title":{"rendered":"Victorian Indigenous Tennis Carnival Serves Up Spirit, Talent and Community\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The indoor courts at the National Tennis Centre came alive on Sunday 15 June as Tennis Victoria proudly hosted the inaugural Victorian Indigenous Tennis Carnival. This landmark event was a celebration of culture, connection, and the incredible talent within Victoria\u2019s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.<\/p>\n<p>A key highlight of the day was the Round Robin Matchplay, which acted as a selection event for Victorian players hoping to represent the state at the National Indigenous Tennis Carnival (NITC) in Darwin this August.<\/p>\n<p>From the match play, a Future Stars Team of six players aged 12 and above was selected based on their talent, behaviour, and on-court attitude. They will join the VIC Showdown Team, which is selected based on UTR (Universal Tennis Rating).<\/p>\n<h3><strong>VIC Showdown Team \u2013 U18 and U14 (and mob):<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Lewis Murray (Wamba Wamba)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Will Brooks-Gay (Wathaurong)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sophia Brooks-Gay (Wathaurong)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Lola Grigor (Wonnarua)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Zane Ryan (Ngarrindjeri)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Nate Swale<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>VIC Future Stars Team (and mob):<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Dakora Graham (Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Adelaide Grigor (Wonnarua)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Brock Mitchell<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Nate Moloney (Ngadjuri)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Zander Smith (Kamilaroi)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Asker Stanford-Lehmann (Bundjalung)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>A Cultural First for Victorian Tennis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This inaugural carnival marks a significant milestone for First Nations tennis in Victoria. It not only strengthens local pathways to national opportunities but, more importantly, creates a culturally safe space where mob can come together, get active, and feel celebrated.<\/p>\n<p>Missed this year\u2019s carnival or want to be involved next time? Contact: <a href=\"mailto:inclusionvic@tennis.com.au\">inclusionvic@tennis.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Want to learn more about inclusion at Tennis Victoria? Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/play\/inclusion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-standard-landscape wp-image-42346\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/files\/2025\/06\/PXL_20250615_062032178-700x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/files\/2025\/06\/PXL_20250615_062032178-700x450.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/files\/2025\/06\/PXL_20250615_062032178-360x230.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/files\/2025\/06\/PXL_20250615_062032178-200x128.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-standard-landscape wp-image-42347\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/files\/2025\/06\/PXL_20250615_043636130-700x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/files\/2025\/06\/PXL_20250615_043636130-700x450.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/files\/2025\/06\/PXL_20250615_043636130-360x230.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/files\/2025\/06\/PXL_20250615_043636130-200x128.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tennis Victoria proudly hosted the inaugural Victorian Indigenous Tennis Carnival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6423,"featured_media":42344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42342","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\/6423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}