5 May 2023 | Tennis West

It was an action-packed day last Sunday with Tennis West hosting the 2nd Boorloo Indigenous Tennis Carnival.

There was a great level of tennis on display alongside a range of family activities such as come and try activations, open courts, a painting station where kids could portray and paint the landscape from where they are from, and a native inspired ice cream range from Gather Foods.

We were lucky enough to have Whadjuk Noongar woman Ingrid Cumming deliver a welcome to country and Phil “Magic” Narkle give an address to the players on the importance of leadership in sport and the connection to their culture.

Emerging WA and Australian Open women’s player Talia Gibson took the players through a warmup, held and a Q&A session with Tennis West CEO Brett Patten and spoke about the importance of having the support of her family in her journey to becoming a professional athlete.

Tennis West Club Development Officer and Inclusion Lead Zara Cavalot was proud to continue with the success of the Indigenous carnival and embrace diversity by being welcoming, safe and inclusive for everyone.

“The best part was seeing the families of the players getting to watch their children play while also giving younger siblings the chance to participate in the come and try activities and give tennis a go.”

The main showcase was the UTR event for young indigenous tennis players in the Perth metro area to compete against each other in the leadup to Darwin’s national Indigenous carnival in August.

Players that competed in this event also trained in the indigenous metro squad which occurred over Term One.

WA Indigenous Squad Coach Caitlin Hindmarsh was looking forward to seeing this group of players feed into Team WA and attend the National Indigenous Champs in Darwin.

“It was great to see the squad players competing in the UTR event. There has been an obvious improvement in their tennis skills and confidence, they should be so proud of how far they have come since the start of the year.” Said Hindmarsh.

The carnival was the first of three lead-in events to be held throughout the state before the National Championships in August.

The Regional South Indigenous Tennis Carnival will be held next Friday at Narrogin Tennis Club followed by Regional North in Halls Creek later in the month.

Results:

Under 18 Winner: Aidan Lundberg

Under 18 Runner Up: Jackson Phillips

Greenball Winner: Seth Savarese

Greenball Runner Up: Emily Rose McMahon