29 September 2010 | Tennis Tasmania

Tennis Seniors Australia held the National Claycourt Championships recently at Dendy Park Tennis Club in Melbourne.  This year a strong contingent of 7 Tasmanians (1 in the 45+, 2 in the 50+, 1 in the 60+, 2 in 65+ and 1 in the 70+) made the trip to Victoria to compete.  

Competing in wet conditions, outstanding performances were seen from Andrew Youl and Max Byrne who made the semi finals of the 45+ Singles and 75+ Singles respectively. Byrne, a regular on the Australian Seniors circuit and number four seed, showed solid form all tournament and was unfortunate not to win his way into the final. Youl, competing in his first National Seniors event was unseeded for the 45+ Singles but produced some fine tennis on the clay to reach the semi finals.  Defeating the number four seed in the quarter finals, Youl entered his semi final in great form but unfortunately couldn’t overcome a tough opponent who was top seed.

Youl who has been playing Tennis since the age of 8 still competes in open events around Tasmania. He admitted it was a different challenge competing against players older than the sometimes junior opponents he had become accustomed to playing in Tasmanian AMT open tournaments.

“From a personal perspective it was great to catch up with players from Tassie that I had previously competed against.   It was different although no less challenging playing once again against people your own age” said Youl, “It was fantastic playing on the clay, it brought back many great memories of the original Tassie clay court days at Burnie, Hart Street, Domain and Taroona.” 

After a successful debut on the Seniors circuit Youl now has his sights set on the Australian Seniors Individual and Teams Championships in January 2011 where a team will be selected to represent Australia in New Zealand next year.

 Participants in the 2010 Australia Seniors Claycourt Tennis Championships:

Andrew Youl – 45+
Terry McCarthy – 50+
Martin Rojahn – 50+
Jon Aufder-Heide – 60+
Rod Turner – 65+
Wayne Schultz – 65+
Max Byrne – 70+ 

For more information on how you can get involved in Seniors Tennis contact Tennis 35+ Seniors Tasmania at [email protected].