24 August 2015 | Tennis Victoria

The Victorian Tennis Awards were presented tonight at Tennis Victoria’s Championships Dinner, proudly presented by ANZ. The night is Victorian tennis’ night of nights to celebrate the great sport and an opportunity to reward the efforts of the Victorian tennis community.

The major award of the night, the Most Outstanding Club, Centre or Association was won by Mt Eliza Tennis Club. Mt Eliza Tennis Club has had a big year, increasing membership numbers, offering a variety of programs for participants, mentoring programs to keep girls in the sport and being a proactive club in their region supporting local charities.

Destanee Aiava continued her winning streak taking home the Female Junior Athlete of the Year award for the third time running. Omar Jasika, on the back of his success at the US Open Juniors in August won Male Junior Athlete of the Year for the first time.

One of the highlights of the evening was being entertained by seven time Grand Slam winner, Evonne Goolagong Cawley. Interviewed by Gerard Whateley, Evonne took the audience back to her playing days and told stories of her days at Wimbledon.

The other highlight of the evening was the awarding of the Victorian Spirit of Tennis award. Previous winners of this award include Margaret Court, Pat Cash, Neale Fraser, Frank Sedgman, Colin Stubs and last year’s winner Daniela Di Toro. For the first time ever since its inception in 1980 the award was presented to two very popular winners. Patricia Gilchist and Carol Pearce, two icons of country tennis, were joint recipients of this very special award.  Having administered VCTA Country Week for 25 consecutive years they have grown attendance at that event from 60 teams to over 200.

Nichols Point Primary School from Mildura were the winners of the Most Outstanding School award.

Tennis Victoria’s Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Kennedy said “2014/15 was a very busy and exciting time for Victorian tennis and for our 900 clubs, centres and assocations across the State. Over the 12 months we have gone from 112,000 players officially registered to the sport to now having 165,000 new and existing registered participants. Without the tireless and passionate work of those at the event tonight, and many others, this wouldn’t have been possible.”

Click here to view some images of the evening. The full list of winners is below:

Most Outstanding Club, Centre or Association
Mt Eliza Tennis Club

Victorian Spirit of Tennis Award
Patricia Gilchrist and Carol Pearce

Volunteer Achievement
Robin Lowe – Sale Tennis Club

Most Outstanding Tournament
VCTA Country Week

Most Outstanding School
Nichols Point Primary School

Coaching Excellence – ANZ Tennis Hot Shots
Tim Connelly (East Hawthorn) – Hume Tennis and Community Centre

Coaching Excellence – Club or Centre
Jason Lindeman – Banyule Tennis Club

Most Outstanding 35+ Tennis Senior
Nola Collins – Frankston East Tennis Club

Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability
Dylan Alcott

Junior Athlete of the Year – Male
Omar Jasika – Bentleigh Rec and Kooyong LTC

Junior Athlete of the Year – Female
Destanee Aiava – Noble Park TC and Kooyong Lawn TC