14 June 2011 | Tennis Victoria

 Waverley Tennis secured its third consecutive Association and Regional Teams Challenge (ARTC) yesterday, cementing its spot as one of the best associations in Victoria.Playing Eastern Region Tennis in the final, Waverley Tennis easily accounted for them, winning 13-121 to 5-77.

“We had a pretty new team [compared to 2010],” said Karen Butler, who has been Waverley Tennis’ Team Manager since the event started in 2004.

“A lot of the kids have played together at different events so we had a very good combination of players, who were very strong, especially in the mixed doubles.

“Only three out of the 12 players played last year, but there were four players in our team who didn’t lose a match for the weekend. That’s a third of your team not losing a match which takes the pressure off the rest of the team.

“A couple of the players were very raw. They had never played for Waverley before so it was a great experience for them.”

Traralgon hosted the event for the second time and were blessed with good weather.

“We had three beautiful days of sunshine and no rain. Traralgon hosted it very, very well and did a great job,” said Butler.

In total, 144 players comprising 12 teams from metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria took part in the mixed teams’ event held in Traralgon.

The ARTC is an annual event comprising teams of two boys and two girls in the 12/u, 14u, and 16/u age groups. The competition is a round-robin format with ties consisting of two boys singles, two girls singles, one boys doubles, one girls doubles and two mixed doubles rubbers in each age group.

The ARTC is one of several Regional Team Events conducted by Tennis Victoria which showcase emerging junior tennis talent.