Sale Tennis Club hosted a successful Wellington Teams Event on May 23 and 24 with enthusiastic plans to expand the event for 2027 using the successful Country Week format.
It was the first time a 'teams' format had been run by Tennis Seniors Victoria and it was the first time that Tennis Seniors Victoria had run an Under 30 event.
The teams initiative was an effort to spark new interest after falling entry numbers for recent regional National Ranking Tournaments.
This initial teams event was played using the Country Week format with 4 players per team on court but with up to 8 in a team to allow the flexibility to sub players in and out.
Players nominated their own teams and it allowed groups of friends to play as a team, often for the first time. Playing in a round-robin format ensured that all players got plenty of quality tennis over the weekend.
In the Under 30’s team “Stuart”, made up of Josiah Levchenko, Bella Prince, Aaron Donaldson and Lucas Zhang played some inspired tennis to edge out “Triple T Tennis”; Campbell Scott, Amber Archer, Juliet McGinty and Laurence Zhang.
In the Over 30’s the “Bairnsdale Bandits” team included East Gippsland local Luke Missen, a para standing tennis world champion. Luke is currently the world 1# ranked PST4 Para-Standing Tennis player, European Doubles Champion and Oceania Singles Champion. Next month Luke will play in the Grasscourt Para Standing Championship in London, the only international grass-court para-standing tennis tournament in the world. Luke will then travel to Torino, Italy, to compete in the 2026 IPSTA World Championships from June 18–21. This will involve over 100 athletes from 30+ countries who will compete at the highest level of competition across four classifications. Luke will travel with fellow Australian para standing athlete and television personality, Adam Hills.
In the Over 30’s “Fire Sale”, made up of Jake Weir, Bryan Lazzaro, Luke Szarek, Josh Barbetti, Jason Yap and Robin Lowe, were strong all weekend and managed to ease past team “Lukey’s” consisting of Mick Luke, Jenny Luke, Vaughan Smith and Di Arnot to claim the 2026 title.
One of the unique and enjoyable features of the seniors event is that players and their partners enjoyed a very social night out on Saturday night together at The York. Organisers were delighted to welcome a large number of the Under 30’s players who celebrated alongside the more seasoned players.
Tennis Seniors Victoria President Bert Faux and Tournament Director Mike Evans said they were extremely grateful for the support for the event from Wellington Shire Council.
With the initial success of the 2026 event they hope to expand the number of teams next year to 16 teams.
The 2027 event is scheduled for late May and will again feature both an Under and an Over 30’s competition.
They hope that players who enjoyed this event will spread the word and help attract a capacity field for 2027.