14 December 2011 | Tennis Tasmania

Article and photo courtesy of The Advocate.

THE McDonalds Burnie International has won the Tennis Australia Most Outstanding Tournament award for the second year in a row.

The award was announced at the annual Newcombe Medal and Tennis Australia awards gala in Melbourne on Monday night.

The Burnie tournament was judged the best ahead of other finalists, the Cliffs Esperance Tennis International (WA) and the Love N Deuce North Shore Open (NSW).

TOP HONOUR: Burnie McDonalds International tennis tournament board member Rob Vernon and chairman Anthony Johnstone celebrate back-to-back wins for the Tennis Australia Most Outstanding Tournament award for the second year in a row. Picture: Katrina Dodd.

The main award of the night, the Newcombe Medal was won by Samantha Stosur for the second year in a row.

Junior Wimbledon champions Ashley Barty and Luke Saville were named junior players of the year, with both a strong chance to play in next year’s Burnie International.

Burnie’s award was accepted by Burnie Tennis Club international committee chairman Anthony Johnstone and board member Rob Vernon.

“It’s pretty special for Burnie and for the Burnie Tennis Club when you are sitting in a room with 700 of tennis’ finest and called out as the best in the nation – especially when it’s for the second year in a row,” Johnstone said.

Johnstone paid tribute to the work of the BTC board, international committee and club volunteers.

“From ball boys to courtesy car drivers and everyone in between, they deserve this kind of reward for their efforts,” he said.

Johnstone said a good example of the volunteer brigade at the BTC were the people who had the task of cleaning the courts ahead of the international.

“This can take a couple of members around four hours to do a couple of courts and we have 16 of them to be done,” he said.

“We once got a quote for someone to come in and do it and it works out our volunteers save the club $12,000 each year completing just this one task.”

Tennis Tasmania CEO and former Burnie tournament director Mark Handley said the Burnie event continued to set the benchmark for other tournaments around Australia to aspire to.

“The club does a wonderful job at delivering the event and promoting the sport,” Handley said.