Medicine Hat Open gets underway today

By JAMES TUBB on August 16, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Tennis Club will be in full throttle this week.

The local club is holding the Medicine Hat Open with the action getting started tonight and finishing up Saturday evening.

Club manager Ken Clement said the tournament is returning to its pre-COVID format of including both the singles and doubles tournaments in the same week. The last two years the two divisions had been split into two different tournaments. Clement said the return of the full format will only bring energy to the tournament.

“It means there’s a lot of people around the club, there’s a good buzz, lots of energy, which is very exciting,” Clement said. “We’re really looking forward to it starting and we’ll be able to lay out the draw to wrap up Saturday night. It may go until 11 p.m. under the lights, but it’s going to be a great, great day Saturday.”

The tournament gets started with men’s and women’s singles matches today starting at 5:30 p.m.. Wednesday is the first day of doubles action with more singles matches that continue into Thursday and Friday before Saturday sets up the final matches.

Clement compared this tournament to the Club’s Wimbledon or U.S. Open and said he looks forward to it each year.

“It’s the one that brings the most people together in one spot and allows people to visit,” Clement said. “Everybody’s getting back from their summer holidays, so you hear about what people were doing and all that and everybody’s eager to play. It’s certainly something we look forward to and especially now that it’s more or less in its normal form, we look forward to it all the more.”

He said all spectators are welcome to watch throughout the week and anyone interested in tennis or the tennis club can stop by for information or to talk with some of the organizers.

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