Florida Park Tennis Club hosts mutli-provincial social tennis tournament
Rain delayed play but fierce tennis was played after skies cleared
Travelling from far and wide, tennis enthusiasts from across the country’s heartland descended on Florida Park Tennis Club (FPTC) for a social development tournament on October 2.
Originally meant to be hosted in Soweto, Vaal River Sports Development (VRSD) chose FPTC as a replacement venue to cover for a schedule conflict. The well-maintained facility had planned to welcome over 60 players but inclement weather meant only 40 made the journey for the social tennis event.
Participants made long distance drives from as far away as Kimberly and Parys only to be greeted by rain, something they refused to let get in their way. After a clearing of skies and rolling up of sleeves, play began shortly after 11:00. Doubles were the order of the day, with players being paired in men’s, women’s and mixed doubles categories.
Playing a shootout of best of seven games, each doubles pair played the other in a round-robin format and despite the rapid rate of play, were unable to complete the mixed doubles section due to time constraints. Only the men’s and women’s section would be decided, with the hosts capitalising on home court advantage, as both winning pairs would come from the FPTC.
The finals would be played over 11 games, with Juan de Beer and Darryl Laird convincingly defeating Vaal’s Peter Diamond and Parys’ Thys Molantoa 6–2 in the men’s section. In the ladies bracket, Elsa Struwig and Zaahida Hassen cruised to the trophy, defeating Centurion’s Keneilwe Masilo and Soweto’s Marosa Kapoko 9–2.
The purpose of the day was to raise funds for VRSD to send their members for the Tennis South Africa level one officiating course. Additional support came from Florida Junction Spar in the form of refreshments, Tennis South Africa that sponsored a box of balls, and the City of Johannesburg that sponsored healthy stamina-boosting meals for the famished tennis players and officials.
VRSD’s Motlatsi Majoro hailed the day as a success, saying, “We thank all the partners for their awesome contributions. Thanks to Tennis South Africa, City of Johannesburg and Florida Junction Spar as well as Florida Park Tennis Club for hosting for this event.”
