At the Australian Deaf Games in Geelong, we held our AGM.  We are pleased to announce new DTA board as follows:

• President - Glen Flindell
• Vice President - John Lui
• Treasurer - Michael Kan
• Secretary - Stephen Swann
• NSW Rep - Joshua Sealy
• SA Rep - David Edwards
• QLD Rep (Brisbane) - Julie Lyons
• QLD Rep (Mooloolaba) - Jamie Zafir
• VIC Rep - Stephen Swann

Several positions remain vacant (reps for TAS, NT, WA), and all state subcommittes have vacancies. So if you would like to see more deaf tennis happening in your area and would like to help organise things, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@deaftennisaustralia.org to discuss further.

Tennis at the 2012 Australian Deaf Games involved 3 intense day of tennis on the blue Plexicushion courts at the Geelong Tennis Club.  All competitors displayed admirable fortitude and competitive spirit, battling the 30+ degree weather, high winds and each other.  With the new competition format every match counted towards both individual and team standings, which made for some close battles for players of all standards.

The Edith Bryan Cup (Women’s team event) was a closely fought event, dominated by Ayami Sato (NSW) who for her efforts won individual Gold in both the singles and doubles (partnered with Maria Jordan (NSW)). Despite Maria claiming the consolation singles event for NSW, ultimately the New South Wales team was unable to match the depth of the winning Victorian team, who finished with three players (Fiona Goldab, Kathy Sakellarios and Penny Gillett) ranked in the top four in the singles.

In the Cohen Cup (Men’s team event), honours were shared between players from Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand. Glen Flindell (VIC) captured the individual Gold in both the singles and doubles, but overall it was team depth that again won the day for Victoria.  Congratulations to Leniker Thomas (NZ) for winning the A-grade consolation singles, and to the youngest player in the event Oliver Dunn (VIC) for winning the B-Grade consolation singles.

In the Mixed doubles, Ayami continued her dominance pairing with Leniker Thomas to outclass NSW young guns Heather Bowie and Albert Nguyen.  Congratulations to Heather on being awarded the Allen Mann encouragement award.

Final standings are available here.

Many thanks to the Geelong Lawn Tennis Club for their hospitality, the crew of Australian Deaf Games organisers and volunteers, and for all those who voluntarily helped out here and there to keep things running smoothly. 

DeafTV have kindly prepared a video with a few highlights from the tennis, available on youtube here.

Bring on the next Australian Deaf Games in Adelaide in 2016!

The NSW Deaf Tennis Championships took place Sunday 23^rd October 2011 at Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush.

Under clear blue skies, warm sun and temperatures in the high 20s, 6 men and 6 women battled long and hard for the right to be crowned NSW Deaf Tennis Champions.

After waiting for a few latecomers to arrive the tournament officially began at 9am with the kick-off of the round-robin stages of the Singles events. This year saw a mixture of new and old faces some of who were playing their first tennis tournament in over 15 years!

Men:

In the Men’s, the top seeds in their respective groups, Andrew Klusman and Joshua Sealy enjoyed a straightforward progress to the semifinals. Mark Theodossiou and Vince Terlizzi put in a sterling effort to reach their first ever semifinals but the gulf in playing ability was too great to overcomer as Mark went down 6-3 to Joshua and Vince 6-0 to Andrew.

Jamal Ahmadi also impressed in his first ever tennis tournament after just a few months of starting in the sport, going down 6-4 to Liam Hodgson in the 5^th/6^th playoff.

With the top two seeds facing off in the final, it was an interesting contrast between the two players. The young powerful Joshua who has already represented Australia in Taipei 2009 Deaflympics against the older experienced Andrew who has only just started to be involved in deaf tennis.

Andrew handled the windy conditions better at the start, limiting his unforced errors and racing to a 6-1 first set lead. In the second set, it was the same story with Andrew leading 4-1 until Joshua began to find his range after doubling his concentration and was eventually dominating the rallies with his powerful groundstrokes. He managed to claw back a break of serve but Andrew held on to close it out 6-3 for his first ever NSW Deaf Tennis Championships singles title.

In the doubles, there were 3 teams consisting of Andrew Klusman and Liam Hodgson, Vince Terlizzi and Mark Theodossiou, Joshua Sealy and Jamal Ahmadi.

It turned out to be a close affair between the bottom two teams for the right to compete in the final against Klusman/Hodgson who won both their doubles matches in a clear-cut fashion. Ahmadi/Sealy and Terlizzi/Theodossiou ended up with 4 games each after their two round-robin matches but as Terlizzi/Theodossiou had actually won their match against Ahmadi/Sealy, they were through to the final.

Terlizzi and Theodossiou put up a brave fight but could not stop Klusman/Hodgson from steamrolling to a 6-2 victory, completing a sweep of the Mens events for Andrew.

 

Women:

The women’s round robin singles consisted of last year’s champion, Ayami Sato, two new players and 3 returning players who used to play under the old Deaf Tennis NSW club.

Karen Paterson displayed continued improvement since taking up the game a year ago and acquitted herself well against her counterparts who have been playing for many years. Her efforts were rewarded with a 3^rd place finish in the round-robin group.

Ayami progressed through the round-robin stage without losing a single game, winning all matches 6-0. Maria Jordan, returning from her battle with illness, won her two remaining singles to progress to the final where Ayami awaited. True to form, Ayami was too strong for Maria in all aspects of the match storming to a 6-0 win and the title of NSW Champion for the 2^nd year running.

In the doubles, there was a round robin of three teams – Ayami Sato and Heather Bowie, Maria Jordan and Tania Palmer, Laurel Payne and Karen Paterson.

Again, the true test of the round robin proved to be which of the lower teams would earn the right to face off against Ayami and Heather, who comfortably won their matches, in the final. That honour went to Maria and Tania after they saved 2 match points against Laurel and Karen en route to a tiebreak win 9-7 despite a gallant effort from Laurel who played through a foot injury.

Maria and Tania were able to play better in the final than they had in their round robin match against Ayami and Heather. There were some great rallies as Maria and Tania sought to use their experience but could not complete the task as Ayami and Heather proved too strong with their groundstroke consistency. As a result, Heather secured her first ever deaf tennis title and Ayami joined Andrew as a deserving dual champion of both singles and doubles.

 

All in all, it was a great day in beautiful weather at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre. A special thanks must go out to Michelle Clarke at Tennis NSW for helping to organise the court bookings and letting us use their BBQ for a fantastic lunch.

I hope next year will be just as successful and on a larger scale with more participants!

 

See you next year!

John Lui

Vice President

Deaf Tennis Australia

Details for NSW and Vic champs are finalised, both will be held starting Oct 23rd, so get your entries in now.  For more details & online entry go to http://www.deaftennisaustralia.org/tournamententry.php

Folks, preparations for the 2012 Australian Deaf Games in Geelong, January 14th-21st, are well under way.  Tennis will be at the Geelong Lawn Tennis Club, and it promises to be a week full of tennis and other fun things!  Our aim is to play the tennis in the mornings & finish up early afternoon, so everyone is free to enjoy all that the ADG and Geelong have to offer!  There will be plenty of tennis for all standards of play, and everyone will get the opportunity to earn team points for their state/region.  We firmly suggest you get your entries in soon & also sort out your accommodation - the later you leave it the harder it will be to find! 

Official event website is http://www.austdeafgames.org.au/, and if you have queries about the tennis please send an email to info@deaftennisaustralia.org.