The past week saw the MINDIL BEACH CASINO RESORT GARDENS OPEN kick-off the season of Tennis Australia sanctioned tournaments in the NT for 2024. With dry season inching forward, tennis fans were in the perfect place to enjoy the occasional cooler breeze while watching the tennis under the shade at Gardens Tennis Club.
Junior play ran mostly in the mornings with a break during the day, restarting in the afternoon with the Open players joining in the fun and sweat!
Day 1 also included a girls lunch and activities with Talent Operations Manager, Jess Polack. Thirteen girls who were entered in the tournament attended from across Darwin and Palmerston based clubs. The purpose of the event was to build relationships, support, and confidence. We know that a supportive team atmosphere is crucial to keeping girls in tennis, and many girls stop playing as they reach their teen years.
The Juniors had a great event and showed all of us their fighting spirits, their love of tennis, and their support of each other as team-mates and opponents. We are so proud of how far these kids have come and how they represented themselves on the court.
Across to the open draw, reigning mens champ Hayden Litis found himself having to work hard across all of his matches. The mens final against Lincoln Pratt started with Pratt quick out of the blocks against Litis. Litis fought back and an arm-wrestle ensued!
We had an entertaining match on our hands with fantastic shot-making. Litis emerged the victor, but the up-and-coming generation of youngsters playing in the Open draw certainly got everyone’s attention.
The womens draw was run as a round-robin, and we were treated to Eva Harris vs Grace Harris (no relation) playing off on the court beside Ashlyn Grigg vs Debbie Wecker.
The final results of these two matches do not reflect how hard-fought they were. Eva Harris beat Grace Harris, and Grigg beat Wecker. However, Wecker showed endurance levels inspired by the Terminator, with the ability to do the most important thing in tennis – consistently get the ball back into play, even from seemingly impossible situations. Eva Harris was victorious in the final standings of the womens draw.
A further special mention to Grace Harris and Ashlyn Grigg as they played across multiple divisions and put in a lot of court time across Junior Singles tier 1, Doubles tier 1, and the Womens Singles.
MINDIL BEACH CASINO RESORT GARDENS OPEN – Full Results
Host club: Gardens Tennis
Tournament Director: Ben McLachlan (Operator / Head Coach at Gardens Tennis & Top End Multi Sports)
Major Sponsor: Mindil Beach Casino Resort
If you are reading this, you should be on your way to the ALLABOUT BLINDS PALMERSTON OPEN, from Wednesday 10th April to Saturday 13th April 2024.
See you at the tennis!
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