Over the May Day long weekend, the KATHERINE OPEN was run by the Katherine Tennis Club and played tennis across the club and additional courts at the Tindal RAAF base. This event is one that regularly brings the Territory together through tennis as Darwin and Palmerston based players made their way to Katherine.
Hot 100 joined the fun to broadcast live from the club on Saturday morning. People from the tennis community across all clubs that played at the Katherine Open took the opportunity to talk about why they play tennis, what makes it special, and how kids and adults can get started. On Saturday evening the club held their famous community dinner, with a huge range of dishes catering to everyone.
Back to the tennis, both venues saw excellent play across all competitions. We were lucky to see some excellent match-ups, with many matches lasting the distance.
In the women’s draw, Ava Willoughby notched up her second singles win from 3 final appearances. In the men’s draw, Ben McLachlan hammered home his third singles win at the Katherine Open, this time against Andy Bhardwaj. In the Men’s Doubles Finals, Andy and his partner Arran Kenna had a battle against Ben McLachlan and Lincoln Pratt. Ben and Lincoln proved to be too strong, and took home the big orange Yeti (the event trophies).
Andy also got Runner’s Up in the Katherine Tournament’s Mixed Doubles, partnered with Grace Henderson against Lincoln Pratt and Eva Harris. Grace also earned a Runner’s Up Yeti in the Women’s Doubles with Kayla Peters against Ava Willoughby and Eva Harris.
Junior Player Ethan Harker made finals in Katherine and won the doubles with Grace Harris. Sibling and fellow junior player Jack Harker won the Green Ball Singles and was a finalist in the Doubles with partner Xander Hoppo.
The weekend was capped off with a wonderful trophy (Yeti) presentation, with new President Lis McKerracher announcing the Social Doubles Competition would be named after retiring President, Greg Dickson.
It was a great weekend of tennis in a beautiful setting across two locations. We would like to thank all of the people who helped each-other out with car-pooling which made it possible for many people to come together. Especially we would like to thank everyone on the ground who came together to organise and run the event – the officials, the club committee and the tennis community.
Host club: Katherine Tennis Club
Tournament Directors: Emily Ooms-Webb, Sam Giess (Tennis NT).
Major Sponsors:
– The Katherine Club sponsoring the main Singles competition
– The Contour Hotel sponsoring the main Doubles competition
Also thanks to:
– Katherine Physio
– Jo Hersey Member for Katherine
– Selena Uibo Member for Arnhem
– RAAF for use of the Tindal tennis courts
We look forward to sharing more tennis news from the STAR VILLAGE TEMS OPEN which starts today, with play kicking off at Gardens Tennis Club on Friday 17th May, and finals held at Top End Multi Sports on Sunday 19th May.
Also, mark your calendars to watch the finals of the DARWIN OPEN $10k event, hosted at Darwin International Tennis Centre. Finals will be in the evening of Thursday 23rd May at Marrara.
See you at the tennis!
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