About
We are the home of 25 natural grass courts and 4 synthetic grass courts for social and competition players. We conduct regular tournaments for juniors, veterans and all levels of tennis experience.
In 2003 Ken Wurtz became President of Albury Tennis Association and continued this role until 2022 when he retired. He continues to be involved on the Committee.
Peter Penny is the current President who was elected in 2023.
Albury Tennis Association runs Saturday Pennant competition. Teams from participating clubs enjoy competition on the grasscourts during summer and clay, hardcourt and synthetic surfaces at various venues throughout winter.
Tuesday Ladies Pennant is also offered each season summer and winter.
Tournaments including Easter, Veteran’s, Margaret Court Cup, Rex Hartwig Cup and Regional Junior Development series are held through summer.
Club Championships, National Schools Event, Social play, Coaching and Camps are offered.
The Margaret Court Pavilion is a great facility surrounded by magnificent grasscourts giving us a great complex in the heart of Albury. Our local, Shayne Ried curates our courts to the highest standard and has tended Wimbledon and Davis Cup courts.
Function Hire is available at the Pavilion for all occasions.
Join our rich fabric of history and love of tennis. All ages and levels are welcome.
We host two showcase Events:
ALBURY EASTER TOURNAMENT
Albury Tennis Association held its 100th Easter Open Tennis tournament in April 2014. The celebratory dinner was held at the Commercial Club of Easter Saturday night, 18th April 2014. Dianne Balestrat, former World Number 4 and Federation Cup player along with well known former Davis Cup representatives Rex Hartwig and Allan Stone, the latter also a respected TV commentator, confirmed their attendance at the dinner. On 4th January, a tennis exhibition match – complete with all white attire, old wooden racquets and white tennis balls – was held at the Albury Sportsground, home of some of the earlier Easter tournaments.
The first staging of the Easter tournament was in 1910 with the first men’s singles winner being AW Foster. There was no women’s singles title contested until 1915. The tournament was not held during the war years of 1917-18 or 1943-44. The centenary of the event, with those four missing years, is this year 2014.
About 1940 a grass court complex was built in South Albury by Alan Kendall Snr. brother in law of Wimbledon Champion Jack Crawford. Prior to that, the Easter tournament was played on hard courts at several locations and on the oval at the Albury Sportsground. The courts were sold to the Albury and Border Lawn Tennis Association in the late 1940s. Alan Kendall Senior ran the complex until Wally Rutter took over as the curator about 1950. Alex Ortlipp was curator for a year until Don Hawkins had the reigns from 1960 and until 1980. Bill Simmonds had the job for about 18 months before Frank Tynan commenced in February 1982. Kingsley Neill was curator from September 1999 until September 2004. Shayne Ried, who has worked on the courts at Wimbledon has being custodian since September 2004.
The tournament has seen many well known players grace the courts at Albury over the years including: John Bromwich, Neale Fraser, Ashley Cooper, Owen Davidson, Bob Mark, Janet Young, Lesley Turner, Dianne Fromholz, Evonne Goolagong and the most well known of all, Margaret Smith-Court.
A special exhibition was held at the Museum, featuring never before seen trophies from tennis greats as well as the story of tennis in Albury through the voices and memorabilia of players past and present.
MARGARET COURT CUP
The 20th Margaret Court Cup was held in 2021. The Cup was established to recognise one of the finest women tennis players in world history who grew up in Albury. The tournament provides an excellent opportunity for juniors to participate in a nationally ranked tournament. The tournament is preceded with a one day teams event which enables players to get a taste of tournament play on and familiarise themselves with the grass courts.
The Margaret Court Cup is held each January and has twice been awarded the TNSW Tournament of the Year title. The tournament is followed immediately by the Victorian Jnr Grass Courts Championships another national points event in Wodonga 10 kms from the Albury courts. This provides an excellent opportunity for players to play lots of tennis and possibly gain national points over a 10 day period.
In 2022 winners of the 14 years singles event won a trip to play in the Wimbledon Juniors Qualifying event.
Players come from all over Australia, Oceania and overseas to participate. Coaches bring groups to the tournament which now hosts open events with prizemoney. Margaret Court Cup T-Shirts are given to competitors and are worn at many places including the Australian Open in Melbourne which follows these two events.