City tennis singles kicks off tournament season

By JAMES TUBB on June 4, 2022.

The Medicine Hat Tennis Club kicked off their summer tournament season this week.

The club opened the summer season with the City Singles tournament that got underway Wednesday night and finishes up Saturday evening.

Club manager Ken Clement said the tournament is a nice opening to their season.

“We’re reviving after COVID, we haven’t held this tournament for a few years,” Clement said. “It’s a chance for people to come out and we’re encouraging people that haven’t been out playing tennis much in the last few years to get back out. It’s a nice, low-key tournament.”

Twenty-four players are taking part in the four-day tournament split between 18 men and eight women. The women’s final will start at 5:30 p.m. Saturday with the men’s following at around 7 p.m., depending on pace of play.

Clement said they have an intermediate division competing in the singles tournament that offers participants a more competitive game. He said that final will run around noon.

Clement added the club is down in membership due to the pandemic but says he views it as the top of a three-year curve that will see them and a lot of other clubs in the city return to the busy clubs they were pre-COVID.

The tennis club is staying busy with league action on Tuesdays through Thursdays. The next tournament is next Saturday with the junior singles tournament.

Clement said they’ve had a strong showing in registration and expects to have roughly 40 kids competing in the single-day event, which is close to what they attracted in years prior.

“When they get interested in something, they want to do stuff, so they’ve bounced back quite quickly,” Clement said.

Registration is still open for the tournament that will split kids up in age groupings of 7-8-year-olds, 9-10-year-olds, 12-14 year-olds and an under-18 division.

Any kids interested in registering can do so by emailing info@medicinehattennisclub.com, calling 403-527-4466 or dropping by the tennis club and signing the registration sheet with their name and age.

The follow week, the club will host the 24th annual Barrie Shave Tennis Classic running June 15-19. The event is a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society and the Margery E. Yuill Centre.

Clement said they ran a smaller version of the tournament last year but this year’s event could get up to 100 participants.