{"id":43817,"date":"2026-05-27T16:21:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T06:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/?p=43817"},"modified":"2026-05-27T17:36:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:36:45","slug":"victorian-indigenous-tennis-carnival-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/news\/2026\/05\/27\/victorian-indigenous-tennis-carnival-2026-2","title":{"rendered":"Victorian Indigenous Tennis Carnival 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The second annual Victorian Indigenous Tenn<\/span>is Carnival (VITC) brought together players,\u00a0families\u00a0and community for a deadly\u00a0day\u00a0of connection,\u00a0culture\u00a0and competition.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tournament Director Tahlia Wheatley (Yorta Yorta) led the event, which featured participants ranging in age from 9 to 50.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This year also introduced a new Open category for Indigenous adults, following community feedback after the inaugural event. Alongside the tournament action, younger participants had the opportunity to get involved through a Come and Try session for children aged 5\u201312 and a Come and Play session for teenagers, supported by coach\u00a0<\/span>Nicole Bauer<\/span><\/b>, from\u00a0<\/span>Bionic Tennis Coaching<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The event was further enriched by\u00a0Tennis Victoria\u2019s\u00a0Inclusion Hub.\u00a0On the day,\u00a0the\u00a0hub created a safe and welcoming space for connection and cultural sharing, offering participants the opportunity to engage in activities such as raffia weaving and working with possum skins.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These cultural activities were facilitated by Emma Bamblett, a proud Wemba Wemba, Gunditjmara, Ngadjonji and Taungurung artist and co-founder of Kinya Lerrk.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tournament Results<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n

Under 14 Singles\u00a0<\/strong>
Winner: Zander Smith (Kamilaroi)<\/span>\u00a0
Runner-up: Nate Moloney (Ngadjuri)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under 14 Doubles\u00a0<\/strong>
Winners: Nate Moloney (Ngadjuri) and\u00a0Dakora\u00a0Graham (Yorta\u00a0Yorta, Dja\u00a0Dja\u00a0Wurrung).\u00a0
Runners-up:\u00a0<\/span>Logan Hallworth\u00a0(Nukunu)<\/span>\u00a0and William Walker\u00a0(Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under 18 Singles\u00a0<\/strong>
Winner: Zane Ryan (Ngarrindjeri)<\/span>\u00a0
Runner-up: Brock Mitchell (Wurundjeri)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under 18 Doubles\u00a0<\/strong>
Winners: Zane Ryan (Ngarrindjeri) and Asher Lehmann (Bundjalung).\u00a0
Runners-up: Brock Mitchell (Wurundjeri) and\u00a0Zander Smith (Kamilaroi)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Open Singles\u00a0<\/strong>
Winner: Ben Day (Noongar\u00a0Wadandi\u00a0& Yamatji Nugaja)<\/span>\u00a0
Runner-up: Luke Moloney (Ngadjuri)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Future Stars Green Ball Mixed Doubles\u00a0<\/strong>
Winners:\u00a0Dakora\u00a0Graham (Yorta\u00a0Yorta, Dja\u00a0Dja\u00a0Wurrung) and Kalia Ikufu (Darumbal).\u00a0
Runners-up:\u00a0Munarra\u00a0Graham (Yorta\u00a0Yorta,\u00a0Dja\u00a0Dja\u00a0Wurrung) and Hannah Mitchell (Wurundjeri)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Deadly Winner:\u00a0<\/strong>Logan Hallworth (Nukunu)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Deadly Award<\/strong>,\u00a0recognises\u00a0someone who shows \u201cno shame\u201d,\u00a0demonstrates\u00a0pride on and off the court and acts as a positive role model.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Logan Hallworth\u00a0(Nukunu)<\/strong>\u00a0was recognised for his positive attitude,\u00a0<\/span>sportsmanship\u00a0and support of fellow players regardless of results.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam Watson, Inclusion Manager at Tennis Victoria,<\/strong>\u00a0said the event continues to grow in both impact and participation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0incredibly proud to see the Victorian Indigenous Tennis Carnival continue to grow, creating a space where young people and community can connect through tennis and culture. It was particularly exciting to see so many girls involved in the Future Stars events, which bodes well for the future of our sport.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We were thrilled to expand playing opportunities at this year\u2019s carnival, including introducing the new Open category and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0excited about continuing to grow the event further, hopefully even adding a parent-child category next year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the best parts of the weekend was seeing participants build connections with each other and proudly share culture in a safe and welcoming environment. We were excited to have Emma Bamblett join us to\u00a0facilitate\u00a0cultural activities within the Inclusion Hub and help create those meaningful experiences for everyone involved.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The VITC acts as part\u00a0selection\u00a0for the\u00a0<\/span>National Indigenous Tennis Carnival\u00a0(NITC)<\/strong>, which will be held in Darwin in August. Players are set to find out in the coming\u00a0<\/span>weeks<\/span>\u00a0if they have been successful in earning a place in ‘Team Vic’ for Darwin.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to get involved in First Nations Pathway as a player, coach, volunteers or want to find out more please contact:\u00a0<\/span>inclusionvic@tennis.com.au<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Deadly Winner: Logan Hallworth (Nukunu)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second annual Victorian Indigenous Tennis Carnival (VITC) brought together players, families and community for a deadly day of connection, culture and competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6423,"featured_media":43814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43817","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\/43817","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=43817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}