Category Archives: Tennis

Tennis Gear has been selected by the QCLTA to manage their 12 court facility at Morningside. After a long selection process that saw applications from around Australia, Tennis Gear was offered the management rights to the facility under a long term licence arrangement.

Mark Bloomfield the Managing Director of Tennis Gear said “we are delighted to be recognised as a leader in tennis centre management. Our team has worked hard to ensure our centres at Shaw Park and Everton offer the services and programs the local tennis community is looking for and we are confident we can replicate our success at Morningside.”

The Morningside Tennis Centre will undergo a dramatic transformation over the coming months as two new courts are constructed, the lighting upgraded and the proshop fitted out to a similar standard as Shaw Park and Everton. Soon players from the South-side of Brisbane will be able to enjoy the wide range of coaching, social, fixture and retail services offered at Shaw Park and Everton.

Shaw Park Tennis Centre has again been selected by the International Tennis Federation to host a Junior ITF tournament in 2012. The tournament will see the best Under 18 players from around Australia and Oceania compete for valuable world ranking points. Last year Junior Wimbledon winner Ash Barty won the girls event and her win attracted international media attention. We are very proud to host this event again in 2012 and we welcome the players to our centre. The event will run between Monday 9th July to Saturday 14th July.

Our Head Coach Gareth Keating recently played the University Open.  Below is a great action shot captured by Jeff Law.

Gareth Keating at Uni Open

Congratulations to all the players that participated in this weeks Platinum AMT at Shaw Park Tennis Centre.

Playing for $10,000 in prizemoney the eventual winners were Robert Smeets and Ashleigh Barty.

Well done also to our coaches Gareth Keating and Will Mason who made the final in the mens doubles event.  The following is a link to the results site with all the completed match scores.  Shaw Park AMT Results.

Gareth Keating and Will Mason

Over the next holiday break we are offering two fun filled holiday tennis clinics. The first clinic will be a “Super Clinic” consisting of five days of tennis at the Shaw Park Tennis Centre during week 1 of the holidays, and the second will be a three day clinic at the Everton Tennis Centre during week 2 of the break.

Our qualified coaches will be conducting a range of fun, learning activities including: on court coaching, technique, motor skill development and physical training. All players will be able to participate in a singles and doubles tournament in the afternoon and the younger players will be involved in a fun mini tennis Olympics!

Students are required to bring their own morning tea and lunch – as they would at school. We recommend bringing a large water bottle, hat and sunscreen. A sausage sizzle will also be provided on the last day for lunch as a treat for the students. Trophies, awards and prizes will be given out during the week.

The holiday clinics have proven to be very popular, and enrolments will be taken on a first come, first served basis. Click here for a Holiday Clinic Enrolment Form.

When:

Shaw Park Centre. Mon 19^th to Fri 23^rd Sept¹ (5 days)

Everton Tennis Centre. Tue 27^th to Thu 29^th Sept¹ (3 days)

Age: 4 to 17 years of age

Time: 9am to 3pm

Pricing:

Five Days $259 per clinic².

Three Days $159 per clinic².

Single Days $59 per day.

1. Please note that Mon 26^th Sep & Fri 30^th Sep will be used in the event of any days being cancelled due to rain.

2. 10% Discount for Multiple Enrolments – for three or five day enrolments from multiple students from the same family or single student enrolments at both clinics.

Our popular clinics will be held again during the upcoming holidays.  Enrolment forms are now available on our site for download and further information can be found on the following page.  Be quick, spaces will be limited this time as we are holding both clinics at Everton due to tournament commitments at Shaw Park.  Click here.

Tony Tannenberg and Peter Bergin are long term players from Everton Tennis Centre. Recently they competed at the Pan Pacific Games on the Gold Coast in the Masters Division. The following is an interview with Tony after the event:

What Tournaments did you win?

“I won the over 65 singles and over 65 doubles event (playing with Eric Moser) and also the combined age over 100 with Peter Bergin. With our combined age being 124 years old – so we were playing against youngsters.”

What was your closest match and what was the score in the finals?

“Undefeated in all matches in the round robin events. Our closest match was in the combined doubles where we won against another pairing who were also undefeated 6/5 with the ties breaker 8/6.”

Are you still playing regular tournaments?

“I only play the ocasional Masters or Senior events. My last good result was a silver medal in the over 65 Singles and Doubles played in Geelong in 2009.”

When did you start playing at Everton Tennis?

“In the mid 1980’s.”

What is the strength of your game?

“My ability to hit winners. The flip side being my inconsistency”.

What is your preferred surface?

“Natural grass. Country tournaments played in Victoria on lawn. I have also lived a few years in Perth where all tennis is played on natural grass. My second most preferred surface is en-tout-cas and the the 3rd most preferred surface is artificial grass. I really dont like hard courts.”

When did you start playing tennis?

Aged 10.

Who was your first tennis coach?

I never really had a coach until my late teens when I was picked up in a squad run by Alistair Strong (background as a tennis umpire then ran the Dendy Pub in Melibourne). In the my late 20’s I had lessons from Mick Sweetman who coached Mervyn Rose.

What was your first racquet?

Oliver Bluebird.

What was your favourite racquet?

“Spalding Aluminium, the 1st of the metal racquets. I now use a Yonex.”

Details of our Easter holiday tennis clinic are now available.

The clinics this year will be held during the private school holidays and also during the state school holidays at the  Shaw Park Tennis Centre.  We will be offering a three day and single day option for parents who would like their children to attend for a shorter time.

Of course we will still be having the special lunch on the final day of the clinic.   Last holidays we ended up having pizza at both Shaw Park and Everton and the kids loved it.  We will also running the tennis olympics, tournament and their will heaps of prizes, awards and giveaways for the players.

The dates for the clinic are as follows:

Shaw Park Tennis Centre Tues 29th to Thurs 31st March; and

Shaw Park Tennis Centre Tues 19th to Thur 21st April 2011.

Please click here to download a Easter Holiday Clinic enrolment form.

Click here for a Holiday Clinic Fact Sheet.

Shaw Park Coaches Win Open Tournament

Congratulations go to two of our tennis coaches for winning the Nambour Tennis Open which took place over the past two weekends.  Gareth Keating and Will Mason were the last team standing of the 32-strong draw of doubles teams in the Open Tournament that hosted a selection of the state’s best players.  Gareth and Will won the final 7/6 6/3 on Sunday afternoon in the blistering heat of summer’s hottest day this year.

Former champions of the event include some of the best players of Queensland’s tennis-playing history; Will and Gareth will now have their names engraved on the past champions board alongside such names as Pat Rafter and Mal Anderson.

Gareth and Will last played doubles together in 2004 where they competed in a French National League of team tennis, representing the Evreux Tennis Club.

Will has recently returned to Australia after a 6-year stint coaching tennis at one of the most prestigious tennis clubs in Geneva, Switzerland.  “I haven’t competed seriously in a tournament since my shoulder surgery a few years ago, and although my focus will remain on coaching, this weekend’s win serves as encouragement to team up with Gareth again so that we can hopefully build on this week’s success.  It was a lot of fun.”  After 12 years playing and coaching overseas, Will has recently taken up a position assisting with the coaching at Clayfield College and the Shaw Park Tennis Centre.

When asked about the event, Gareth said “We entered the tournament unseeded with our main motivation to get fit.  I didn’t realize we would have a shot to go so deep in the draw. It’s been 7 years since we played together.”   Gareth added, “At 32 and 31 years of age, its going to take some serious training to get fit enough to win singles titles, so we might have to postpone that for a while!”.

Gareth Keating, the Head Coach at the Shaw Park Tennis Centre and Clayfield College, travelled with two professional doubles players: Eric Butorac world number 28 and Jean Julien Rojer world number 32 for four weeks during January with some fantastic results

Each year in January the best players in the world come to compete in the Australian Open Summer Circuit.  These include a serious of warm up tournaments in Perth, Brisbane, Auckland and Sydney.  Professional players use these tournaments to prepare for the Australian Open, one of the worlds four Grand Slams.  Gareth was asked by Eric and Jean Julien to coach them during the month on January as they prepared for the Australian Open.

“I had travelled a lot through Europe, Wimbledon and the French Open with Eric in the past and he invited me to come and work with him and his new partner while he was in Australia”.  “It was great to work with Eric again”.  They arrived in Brisbane 5 days early for a short training camp to kick start their 2011 campaign.

Brisbane International:

When asked about their debut match in Australia, Gareth replies “It was a tough draw, playing against last years Wimbledon finalists, and such a heartbreaker to lose after having 2 match points”.

Rd 1 – Butorac/Rojer lost to Lindstedt/Tecau.  7-6, 6-7 5-10

Auckland:

The first round draw saw them paired against Australian Open Semi-Finalist David Ferrer. Gareth’s commented about their New Zealand tournament “The boys did really well in the first two rounds, beating some of the top singles guys”.  Those singles guys are such great shot makers, you cant give them any time at all.  The semi-final was disappointing after having been up a break in the first set.  The positive was, it ended up being such a motivator, we were able to go into Melbourne training hard”

Rd 1 – Butorac/Rojer defeated Ferrer/Montanes 7-5 6-3

Rd 2 – Butorac/Rojer defeated Marrero/Gimeno-Travers 6-4 6-4

Semi Finals – Butorac/Rojer lost to Brunstrom/Huss 6-7 3-6

Australian Open: After coming out and fighting well to survive a tough first round, the doubles team cruised through their following 3 rounds defeating the number 5 doubles team in the world.  “Each match got better and better, the guys were playing with such great self belief”.

Butorac/Rojer defeated Golubev/Istomin 6-7 6-4 6-0

Butorac/Rojer defeated Knowles/Mertinak 7-6 6-0

Butorac/Rojer defeated Marrero/Ramirez-Hildago 6-3 6-4

Butorac/Rojer defeated Kubot/Marach 6-3 6-4

Butorac/Rojer lost to Bryan/Bryan 3-6 2-6