NEWSLETTER JUNE 2013
THE WIMBLEDON DRAW was held on Wednesday 24th April. Congratulations to all those who were successful in obtaining one of the 9 pairs of tickets on offer, particularly Angela Smith who was able to purchase a pair of centre court tickets for Men’s finals day! CLUB TOURNAMENT – the draw for this year’s tournament has taken place and the draw sheets are displayed on the Club noticeboard. If you entered the tournament and haven’t yet checked the draw please do so as soon as possible. Some of the matches have already been played and there are different deadlines for completing matches depending on which competition you are in. DAY TOURNAMENT – Another handicap doubles tournament was held on 28th April, and was again very successful. Congratulations to Dave and Jos Whitehorn who were proud winners of chocolate bars on the day and thanks to Pam Reynolds and Caroline St John for organising it. The committee have now decided to present a cup to the winners of future day tournaments, so hopefully Dave and Jos savoured their tournament prize appropriately. FORTHCOMING EVENTS BANGERS ‘n BASH – The Club is again supporting Sway Carnival week with on-­‐court activities. On Thursday 4th July coach Andy will be running a cardio-­‐
tennis taster session. This will be open to all so if you want to try this out, or know a non-­‐member who might be interested please send them along. There will also be a mini-­‐tennis taster session for youngsters who might want to try out the game. There will be sausages, hot dogs and other refreshments available alongside the tennis. Activities will start at 6pm. SWAY FETE – The tennis courts will be open during the village fete on Saturday 6th July allowing everyone to try out the game under supervision from the coach. If you have any friends or neighbours who might enjoy knocking a few balls around please make sure they come along. FINALS WEEKEND – Just a note for your diary; all the finals matches for the club tournament will take place on the weekend of 31st August/1st September. Please come along and support the players who have made it through to the finals. There will be cakes and refreshments available for all spectators. FACEBOOK – As mentioned in the last newsletter the Club now has its own Facebook page. If you use Facebook go to www.facebook.com/SwayTennis and ‘like’ us. Look out for the latest coaching news and upcoming events there. TENNIS CAMPS – Club Coach, Andy, is organising Tennis Camps for Juniors during the summer holidays. Contact Andy (Tel: 077959 64051) for more details or see swaytennis.com (or the Facebook page) where the details are available online. BRITISH TENNIS MEMBERSHIP – If you are a Club member but have not yet signed up for British Tennis Membership please consider doing so this summer. You can sign up online at www.lta.org.uk, and it costs nothing! The main advantage of you joining BTM is that the Club’s allocation of Wimbledon tickets is based on how many Sway members have signed up to BTM. You also get regular updates and
latest offers from the LTA. LEAGUE MATCHES – The Club is currently fielding Men’s, Ladies and Mixed doubles teams in the LTA Dorset league competitions. If you would like to be considered for inclusion in one of the teams please contact Caroline St John on 07825 418784 (Ladies and Mixed teams) or Charlie Prince on 07732 995557 (Men’s team).
WIMBLEDON – Wimbledon will soon be on our screens. How many of the 32 seeds in each of the Men’s and Women’s events could you name? Those that you could name are the players likely to reach the quarter-­‐final stage and beyond. What about those not seeded? How do they get to play Wimbledon? For both singles’ events there is a draw of 128 players. You gain entry if your world ranking is high enough. The French Open, currently being played, is of vital importance to those players who are aiming to qualify for Wimbledon – and who have a pre-­‐French Open world ranking in the low 100s. If they win a couple of rounds, they will earn a healthy number of world ranking points and gain automatic entry into the Wimbledon Draw. If they are knocked out in the first round of the French Open, that’s the end of their Wimbledon dreams. Although there are 128 places in the Men’s and Women’s Wimbledon Draw, they are not all assigned to those players with world rankings from 1 to 128. This is because eight places are reserved for players who come through a Qualifying Draw. This Qualifying Draw is played the week before Wimbledon starts and is composed of players who have a world ranking below that required to gain automatic entry. To qualify for one of those eight places in the Wimbledon Main Draw, a player has to win three rounds in the Qualifying Competition. This process explains why you regularly witness first round upsets. An unknown player makes it into the First Round of the Main Draw, from the Qualifying Competition, and subsequently knocks out an established player, occasionally, even a seed. The ‘Qualifier’ has come through three really tough rounds of competition and is ‘match tight.’ His/her opponent has played practice sets in preparation for Wimbledon, but these are no substitute for actual matchplay. We shall all be hoping for some British success. Our girls are likely to fare better than our men, apart from Andy Murray, of course. He needs to put his skates on if he is to win the Wimbledon crown. He is now 26 years old and there are younger players biting at his heels. The older he gets from now on, the harder his task will be. Watch out for James Ward. The seeding committee can give out one or two wild cards and Ward will probably get one of them. Currently, he is our number two with a world ranking around 260. And let’s not forget Jonathan Marray, our Wimbledon Men’s Doubles Champion from last year. What an exciting final that was! And what a wonderful match he played. We shall be watching his progress, keenly. Enjoy your tennis!