International Tennis Reports

Dutch Real Tennis Association

By Theo Bollerman, President

Despite the strange year we still had some memorable moments. The year started excellently in Melbourne for our Boomerang team The Dutch Courtiers; Huub & Kim van Boeckel, Paul, Lucie & Theo Bollerman and Stephanie Zaaijer, who took some time off her medical study to work as RMTC’s summer gappie. The team reached the last 8 under non playing captain Saskia.

The Handicap Doubles trophy was lifted by Stephanie and Paul, who played very disciplined Tennis. Saskia made her Real Tennis comeback with Kate Leeming, but they lost the final of the Australian Open to the formidable Lumley mother-daughter combination.

The yearly meating of a Dutch group in Cambridge was played in the second week of January. They were once again very grateful for the warm reception. And last but not least, in February a team of eight younger Dutch talents visited Manchester and had the best of times thanks to the world famous hospitality of the Manchester Club members.

Sadly enough, our yearly championships at Radley College had to be cancelled. Instead, we had a lawn tennis party and drinks for all the competitors at the Oranje Tennis Club. Saskia and Hugo van der Meer were just able to make a trip to visit the new Bordeaux court.

But the biggest development of the year is in The Hague. Cees de Bondt, Niek van Wijk and Saskia Bollerman have done their utmost to get the sketch of a Real Tennis court into a plan of the city council of The Hague to build an omni-sport centre. They were very successful. A beautiful report has been formally presented to the The Hague Alderman of Sports.

The architects and the president of the Olympic Committee are also very enthusiastic. But lots of hurdles need to be taken before any further steps can be made. Thumbs up for Niek, Cees and Saskia, and fingers crossed!

Irish Real Tennis Association

By Ben North, Secretary

Mike Bolton (1934–2021), IRTA co-founder and dedicated Real Tennis player". In common with most other clubs, the IRTA was not able to play its usual collection of friendly fixtures and also had to cancel its traditional two championship events. We are now looking forward to being able to play over the coming months, with the fixtures list building up again. We are deeply saddened to report the loss of IRTA cofounder and chairman, Mike Bolton. Mike was a consistent driving force behind the IRTA's work since its inception in 1998, as well as a keen and accomplished player of Real Tennis and other racket sports. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him, both on and off court. There has been little to no development regarding the historic Dublin Real Tennis Court in the past year. We have repeatedly offered to the relevant state bodies our support and help in restoring the court to play, and continue to do so.

By Susie Falkner, CEO

Iam not going to mention the 5 letter “C” word and the tsunami of cancellations it has caused. This report should be about the season 2020/2021 but there hasn’t been a season enabling me to report anything. Of course, as all of you will know the 2020 Challenge has been held over until September 2022 at The Prested Racquet Club. The match days are the 11th 13th and 15th September (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday) culminating in a gala dinner on the 15th. The association launched in January 2021 their Patron Membership. The purpose of this is multifold; the association needs funding for its various operations. Simply put, with greater funds, the IRTPA is in a much stronger position to invest and support its professionals on and off the court and in turn the health of the game. You can all make a difference with

your contribution, large or small. Please go to the association’s website to read more about our Patron Membership. It will be 605 days from the winning shot in the US Open 2020, the last event to Please go to the association’s be played before everything website to read more about our ground to a halt worldwide, to the first ball being hit in a Patron Membership. ranking tournament at the U.S. Professional Singles on the 9th October 2021. For the players who compete whether professional or amateur they will be rusty, but one thing for sure is the excitement of competing again will be immense. Hopefully our report will be a different one for the season 21/22, with events having been played, new champions, players breaking into the top echelons for the first time and perhaps a new name or two to follow.

Australia Real Tennis Association

By Alistair Curley, Chair of Tennis

Like the rest of the world, Real Tennis in Australia at a competitive level in 2020 was massively impacted by Covid, with no major events held from March onwards. However, Australia’s relatively good Covid outcomes did allow our members at all three clubs in Hobart, Ballarat and Melbourne to play a good deal during the year. And each club used the various lockdowns they endured to undertake some maintenance and upgrades to facilities.

As we moved into 2021, hopes were high for a return to competitive play. However, despite our courts being open for play most of the time, inter-state travel restrictions have to the time of writing prevented most of our top level events from taking place. But we did have an exceptionally well attended Victorian Amateur weekend in May at Ballarat, with Kieran Booth and Becca Lunnon winning the singles titles. Despite the vagaries of occasional restrictions, our clubs have been every active through most of 2021 and we look forward to the return of international travel at some point in 2022, to allow visitors from overseas without two weeks’ quarantine and for our top players to travel as events in the northern hemisphere re-commence.

But the most important news from Australia for the past year is that plans for a new court in Sydney continue to move forward. Development approval for the court – to be built at the Cheltenham Recreation Club about 15 mins from the CBD – has now been granted! The club is now going through detailed planning before seeking tenders for construction and we hope to see planning permission granted this year. This new club will be a game-changer for our sport in Australia and we all wish Sydney every success. Finally, Australia sends its very best wishes to the rest of the Real Tennis world – see you in 2022!

“Tennis is at a significant inflection point in the U.S”.

by James Zug

The new court outside of Washington, DC broke ground in July 2021 and Charleston is nearing its fundraising goals and promises to break ground in 2022. Nothing is more important for the future of the game and we are thrilled to have both projects close to completion. We’ve raised more than $6 million in total— a testament to the generosity and passionate support amongst our global community.

In the past year, the USCTA reconstituted itself. We reduced the size of the board and revamped our committee structure in an effort to reinvigorate our leadership and create more sustainable pathways of communication and collaboration with member clubs. In June 2021, I stepped down as president and was replaced by Mary Livingston. Our tenth president since 1955, Livingston is the great-granddaughter of a USCTA founder and an active player in Washington and Newport. This is a milestone moment for our game: she is the first woman to lead any of our national governing bodies.

Otherwise, it was a lost year in some respects. There were no official USCTA on-court events in the 202021 season; this was on top of the last 14 fixtures from our 2019-20 calendar. After the onset of the pandemic in mid-March 2020, it was not until the end of October that all eight member clubs were open; intermittent closures occurred in the winter and Georgian Court University kept its campus closed for over seventeen straight months. At the same time, many USCTA members found that Tennis was a more palatable game to play than squash and bookings at most clubs ran close to normal levels in the winter and spring, particularly as more members got vaccinated.

Chase the First, our monthly e-newsletter, sprinted past its centennial issue (it was founded in November 2011) and continued to come out on the first day of every month thanks to its indefatigable editor Jane Lippincott. She also issued a mammoth Annual Report that covered three seasons and thirty-six months. It topped out with 140 pages of draws, hundreds of photos and evidence of what will happen when we return to normality. Remote gatherings were commonplace this past season. Committees met by Zoom. International Tennis Day occurred as it does every 20 June, although it was mostly virtual in 2020 and mostly in person in 2021. Our twentythird Annual Dinner was held as usual in December 2020, also by Zoom. The dinner included the culmination of a week-long auction (with forty lots), a word-cloud formation game and a special guest: Thomas Jefferson. The third U.S. president (as played by a famous impersonator) appeared live from his library at Monticello and spoke of his possible appearance at the historic Tennis Court Oath on the original International Tennis Day in 1789.

Four hundred and fifty-four days after the 2020 U.S. Open concluded in Chicago, professional competition in American resumed in May 2021 at the Tennis & Racquet Club. For the past 14 iterations, the USCTA National League was a roving, year-long event. In a new format devised by

Tony Hollins, 13 players, divided into five teams, gathered in Boston—after two pandemic postponements—to play singles and doubles over the course of five consecutive days. Ryan Carey, the streaming maestro, broadcasted the matches across the globe, with replays and expert (and often humorous) commentary. The tournament came down to the last match of the last match, with Tuxedo’s Tim Chisholm squaring off against New England’s Camden Riviere. The reigning World Doubles champions played hard and Riviere came out on top 6/4, 6/1 to clinch the title for New England (Hollins, Riviere and Mike Gooding). It was a lovely reminder of what will surely come again.

Photo credit: Andrew Oliveira U.S.-based professionals at the 2021 USCTA National League at the Tennis & Racquet Club in Boston.

By Ivan Semenoff

The season started with the celebration of the centenary of the Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT former FFLT) in the Club du Jeu de Paume de Paris (see photos). The President of the FFT, M.Bernard Giudicelli, wanted to highlight that Real Tennis was at the origins of all Racket Sports. The mayor Paris, Mrs. Anne Hidalgo, Guy Forget, Roland Garros CEO as well as Julien Benetteau, Captain of the Fed Cup Team among others were present. A beautiful, emotional and friendly event.

The main event of this year is of course the opening of the new court in Bordeaux! All players and sport lovers have been waiting for it for 10 years! Thank you to Paul van der Linden who led this long process. Chris Ronaldson helped the club to start his activities and Nick Howell is now the new Head pro. He is delighted and really motivated to face this new challenge in his career with the help of Thierry Lièvre Cormier, the new President of the club. During this unusual year, some important repairs and restoration have been conducted in the Club of Fontainebleau in relations with the Chateau de Fontainebleau.

The court is now ready to host future international competitions such as the Ladies World Championship in 2022.

The court in Chinon is a long-term process which is in its starting phase. We are still hoping to convince the Mayor of Pau to give his green light to the transformation of the Trinquet court into a club fully dedicated to Real Tennis. The Paris Club has been fully refreshed and renovated retaining most of the period furniture carefully chosen by its founders in 1908, lending it a uniquely French character and identity with a light (and delightful) English accent. CFCP and all French clubs are looking forward to hosting the World Masters in 2022 and making them a memorable event in the history of our sport.

The season started with the celebration of the centenary of the Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT former FFLT) in the Club du Jeu de Paume de Paris .