8 March 2024 | Tennis Victoria

While January is always a busy time for tennis, we know the afterglow of the Australian Open means that February is also a thriving time in our sport.

If you were one of our 1320 players who took part in Tennis Victoria Country Week in Wodonga, thank you. It was a pleasure to host you and we hope you had a fantastic time catching up with old friends and making new ones too. We know how special Country Week is, and we’re seeing that come through with the many new faces at Country Week year after year. It was great to see the Langstaff family playing, three generations in one team in the Men’s section, while Judith Langstaff also plays in the Women’s competition.  We also welcomed Dutch backpackers Hugo and Jitty, who shared their Country Week experience through a video that has been viewed over 230,000 times.

Throughout February I attended the Sports Industry catch up with VicSport and all other State Sporting Associations. I represented Tennis Victoria in the Anti-racism project research for Victorian Sport. This project is in partnership with CM Sport and the Koorie Heritage Trust.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the ‘Women. Sport. The Future’ event that took a deep dive into the business of women’s sport, and how the “Matilda effect” can help turbocharge a future of sporting equality.

Looking ahead, I’ll continue to work with Member Association CEO’s when we meet with all Heads of Tennis across Australia at the upcoming National Tennis conference.

While I have your attention, there are a few critical items I want to draw your attention to this month.

First, we are pleased to bring back the Venue Improvement Grants. We last offered these grants in 2022. These grants are available to all affiliates to apply for and will help with small maintenance projects you may have at your venue. Please visit the Tennis Victoria website for more information and how to apply.

Second, many of you will know that we are approaching the end of our current Strategy to 2024. As we look to refresh the Strategy, we welcome your feedback and input to this process. We are hosting a Strategy engagement event on Wednesday 1 May from 7pm. There are over 10 venues that you can attend from Melbourne to Mildura. This will be a hands-on workshop event so in person attendance is critical. To find out more and register for your closest location, click here.

And finally, our Victorian Community Tennis Awards are back. The awards that are traditionally hosted in October are moving forward in 2024 to May to coincide with National Volunteers Week and will focus on our Community Awards. To nominate your club, coach, tennis tournament, official, inclusion initiatve or Council, get in quick and nominate now.

Please continue to connect with the Tennis Victoria team if we can assist with any of the above projects.

Happy Hitting

Tamatha Harding

Interim Chief Executive Officer