MILDURA Lawn Tennis Club (MLTC) is looking to increase membership numbers as it prepares for the opening of its season on Saturday.
Club president Chris Hobart said it was looking to introduce a number of new initiatives to encourage more players to take advantage of their world-class grass courts.
“The start of the summer season comes around very quickly – I can’t believe we just finished the winter season actually, but the courts are in great condition and I can’t wait to get started on Saturday,” Hobart said.
“It is always an interesting challenge trying to get more players involved given there are so many sporting options and opportunities for young people.
“I guess there are a range of initiatives that Tennis Australia and Tennis Vic (Victoria) are rolling out and they are giving us some information about that.
“They are looking at ways of engaging more young people in the sport and bringing past and existing players back to the sport.”
The MLTC will again host a number of major internal and external events over the coming months.
The Mildura Grand International Pro Tour will again headline the list and Hobart said planning was already well under way for the event – as well as a number of other tournaments which the club will host this season.
“It is great we know so early that the Pro Tour is locked in for 2020 – it gives us a better opportunity to plan and improve the event and maybe scaffold some more events around it, so I am looking forward to doing that,” Hobart said.
“It should be great for the club and great for the community.
“The corporate and twilight competitions in November have always been very successful and we have been lucky enough to have a great deal of support for this event over the past four or five years,” Hobart said.
“We have also got the inter-regional championships in January, we have the Pro Tour again this year in March and the Easter tournament in April, so we have a fairly full calendar of external events.
“Then there are the internal club events like the singles, mixed doubles and doubles championships and all those types of things, so it is stacking up to be a pretty busy season.”
Saturday’s season opener gets under way at 9am with a come-and-try morning for juniors players which will be followed by a free barbecue.
The club will then hold its annual general meeting at 1pm and at 1.30pm the senior competition will start.
