21 September 2020 | Tennis Victoria

The below message was sent to Tennis Victoria Metropolitan-based affiliates on Monday 21 September.

Dear Affiliates,

Good afternoon, we hope this finds you well.

We are connecting with all of our Metro Melbourne stakeholders today in anticipation of COVID-19 restrictions hopefully being eased in Melbourne next week.

We have been working hard, advocating strongly for a return to tennis. We are confident we have made positive progress and hope to see this reflected in Government announcements regarding Step 2 which we expect to come into effect on Monday 28 September.

Following a meeting with VicSport and State Government this lunchtime, we understand guidelines for community sport and recreation will be published in the next few days.  We anticipate this will mean, broadly, court hire can resume, 1-1 coaching will be allowed and 10 people per outdoor venue.

However, the legal directions that allow us to confirm this change are often not available until the night of the change coming into effect.  Please understand that confirmation from us will not reach you until we have these legal directions.

At this time we will email the Return to Tennis Guidelines to you, make them available on our website and will also contact local councils to confirm the changes with them.

With this in mind, we would like to encourage every tennis club and coaching business to review your COVIDSafe plans and ensure they are ready for any reopening that might be announced.

It is very unlikely that competition will be allowed at Step 2 -this is likely to come at Step 3.  Therefore, the priority for COVIDSafe planning initially is venues (clubs and coaching businesses).

To prepare or review your plan, please visit the COVID-19 Return to Tennis Checklist on the Tennis Victoria website. A completed Checklist can operate as a COVIDSafe plan for your venue and operations.

You can reach out to your Tennis Victoria representative for further assistance.

The numbers are coming down, we’re nearly there, let’s stay the course and hopefully be back on court in some capacity for Step 2 of the Roadmap.

Kind regards
Tennis Victoria