Adelaide, Australia, 22 April 2013 | Tennis Australia

Last weekend saw Australia’s deaf tennis community converge on Adelaide for the 2013 National Deaf Tennis Championships and to celebrate the 80th anniversary of deaf tennis in Australia.

The competition took place under glorious sunny blue skies on the plexipave courts of the Peakeview Gardens Riverside Tennis Club with the round robin format guaranteeing all players several matches for each event.

In the ladies’ singles Carolyn Nixon (VIC) employed a great variety of shots to defeat Tracey Schirripa (SA) 6-2 6-1 in the final and claim her third title.

In the men’s event, Glen Flindell (VIC) extend his unbeaten streak to twelve years by defeating John Lui (NSW) 6-1 6-3 to notch his sixth straight singles title.

For the first time in the tournament’s history an open doubles event was held in place of the traditional ladies’ and mens’ doubles events.

This saw the tournament committee select the pairings to allow for a more level playing field with the stronger players being paired up with the social players; this entertaining round robin event was won by Tony Merchant (SA) and John Lui (NSW) with Carolyn Nixon (VIC) and Jamie Zafir (QLD) finishing runner-up.

The Allen Mann Encouragement Award was presented to Cameron Hutchinson for displaying great sportsmanship and showing great potential – he promises to be one of our more outstanding juniors in the years to come.

Deaf Tennis Australia wishes to acknowledge the support it received from Tennis Australia including the provision of a tournament director, and Deaf Sports Australia.

For more information go to www.deaftennisaustralia.org.