Quadrangular tennis event provides timely boost
INTERPROVINCIAL tennis has fallen by the wayside in South Africa, but Eastern Province are joining three other provinces to spark some interest with a Mini Open interprov in Oudtshoorn this weekend.
EP will take on Western Province, Boland and South Western Districts in a men's and women's competition tomorrow and on Sunday morning.
The tournament is an initiative of SWD tennis boss Johan Koch, who said yesterday there had been an eager response to an event of this nature. Oudtshoorn had been chosen, he said, as the midpoint venue for participating provinces.
"Yes, there has been a very positive response to this tournament and we will sit down during the weekend and discuss the way forward," Koch said. "We are very keen to make it an annual event, there will be a trophy to play for, and I have no doubt other provinces will be interested in what we are doing."
The quadrangular echoes a similar format which ended just under a decade ago in which the competing teams were EP, Border, Free State and Griquas. Soon after that, in 2006, the SA Tennis Union revived the annual interprovincial, but that lasted only a few years before being discontinued.
Now this Mini Open interprovincial will give some of the provinces' younger players, who do not qualify for the veterans' category, some good exposure at a provincial level. Experienced EP player Conrad Hurter, 37, said it was a "fantastic chance" to play some interprovincial tennis and that they were looking forward to the weekend.
"Look, we don't quite know what to expect because Boland and Western Province are very strong tennis provinces," Hurter said. "But it's a chance for some of our younger players to get provincial experience and that is fantastic."
The tournament will be played across all three formats, with four men's and four women's singles matches, one men's and one women's doubles, and two mixed doubles. Each set won will earn the province a point. The EP team is:
Men: Ricky de Klerk, Conrad Hurter, Edmund Drake, Andrew Stuart, Peter Allnutt (captain); women: Christine Keyser, Wilanie van Zyl, Megan Molyneux-Sandwith, Elaine van Zyl
ýThe fixtures are: tomorrow, 9am: WP v EP, Boland v SWD; 1.30pm: WP v SWD, EP v Boland; Sunday, 9am: WP v Boland, EP v SWD - Neale Emslie
