IT was a festival of tennis across Gannawarra this weekend, with three big Easter tournaments running concurrently.
The biggest of these was the Kerang Lawn Tennis Club’s Easter Carnival, which had upwards of 470 players competing.
KLTC treasurer Kellie Crellin told The Guardian it had been an incredible long weekend for the club.
“It’s been an amazing couple of days with some awesome tennis being played,” she said.
“We’re absolutely ecstatic with the numbers we’ve got, which is well over 100 more than we had last year.”
The standard of tennis was some of the best seen on the KLTC courts.
“We had some tour players competing and using this as a warm-up for the tournament in Swan Hill,” Crellin said.
“The standard of tennis has certainly increased having top division players such as them competing.”
Competitors were highly complimentary of the tournament with Sunday’s first-ever Wimbledon Day, involving a white-clothing dress code, labelled a massive success by Crellin.
“We’ve had some great positive feedback,” she said.
“We’ve had some people who have come here for the first time and mentioned to the canteen ladies how great the tournament is.
“Everyone is raving about the condition of the court, especially considering it’s so soon since last year’s floods.”
Along with the sea of white on Wimbledon Day, it was a tournament of firsts for the KLTC, with night games being played to fit in the beefed-up schedule.
“People have been really open to it and enjoy having that different spectacle of playing under lights,” Crellin said.
Easter is the biggest tournament of the year for the KLTC, with the revenue it brought crucial to the club’s viability.
“This tournament sets us up to be able to run the season ahead while keeping the members’ costs down,” Crellin said.
“Being a volunteer-based club, we try to keep our fees down, so hosting this tournament is huge for our whole year.”
Easter tournaments were also held in Cohuna and Murrabit across the weekend.
The courts at Cohuna Lawn Tennis Club held up to perfection after being saturated on Friday afternoon.
The rain did affect the Easter Tournament at Murrabit Lawn Tennis Club slightly more, with mixed matches being unable to finish. However, the weekend concluded with a bang as kids and adults alike dressed up for a hit of tennis.
