5 February 2024 | Tennis Victoria

I am pleased to share my first update as Interim CEO of Tennis Victoria. To ensure a smooth transition, Adam and I worked closely over the last few months to ensure that the business keeps moving forward while the TV Board recruits a new CEO. I have been at Tennis Victoria for over 24 years and know the business and the community very well. As we head into the final stages of our current strategy, I can assure you that myself and the team are working hard towards achieving the targets set to support and empower this great community.

1,020,763 fans visited Melbourne Park for the 2024 edition of the Australian Open. At Tennis Victoria, it’s important that we maximise the impact of this global event on our Victorian community through exposure to the event and advocacy throughout.

I had the pleasure of meeting many of you throughout January at our Inter-regionals event in Benalla, at the Kooyong Classic where we were fortunate to see Jannik Sinner, eventual AO Men’s Champion and of course at our many activities throughout the Australian Open.

In the first week, I was pleased to represent Tennis Victoria at the Women’s Tennis Foundation Breakfast with the Stars event and Tennis Australia’s Government Relations networking event, which was a chance to connect with Government leaders and advocate for the tennis events and activity that is provided by all of you, year-round. The Women Leaders In Tennis event was another fantastic opportunity to celebrate our leaders across community tennis, and I was so proud to see so many Victorian women leading their communities. Hearing from Jelena Dokic was definitely a highlight.

We welcomed Tennis Victoria partners to the Australian Open to thank them for their support of our sport.

I represented Tennis Victoria at the Diversity and Inclusion Sport Alliance CEO’s Breakfast which was an opportunity to hear from the Australian Sports Commission’s CEO, Kieran Perkins on the importance of making sure we cater for everyone within our communities and that sport is accessible for all – something we pride ourselves in supporting. I also enjoyed connecting with many Victorian coaches at the Coaches Summit where Suzy Riley and Stephen Huss were key note speakers.

To round out the Australian Open activities I joined many Members of Parliament from across Victoria and Australia for the Friends of Tennis event at Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club. This was a chance to connect with MPs from all parties to promote the benefits of tennis and opportunities for them to support tennis in their communities.

January is always a busy month for the team and it’s important that we take advantage of the eyes of the world being on our sport, in our state. Our advocacy work with these groups will continue all year round and I encourage you to think of how you can advocate for your club in your community. Please connect with your Tennis Development Officer if we can assist you with this.

I look forward to seeing over 1400 of you at Tennis Victoria Country Week when we head to Wodonga from 11 – 16 February.

Happy Hitting!

Tamatha Harding
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Tennis Victoria