The North Coast Tennis Championships is one of the most prestigious and long-standing regional tennis tournaments attracting players nationwide (before Covid).

This year is the 94th year of the North Coast Tennis Championships. Previously famous players such as Sam Stosa, Evonne Goolagong, and Fred Stolle have played in this tournament. Fred Stolle has donated the winner’s trophy cup on which each winner has their name engraved from 1961.

Normally the tournament runs with 200 players, but due to Covid, the numbers are lower than usual at 150 players entered this year. Each player can enter into three events, if they lose they enter a consolation round, so each player gets to play at least 2 matches of each event. The winners and the first-round losers could be playing 3 singles and 2 doubles per day of over 460 matches over 4 days.

The winners of the AMT men and women singles will receive $1,000 each in prize money and $500 for the finalists. Fortunately, our sponsors have been very generous this year, so prize money is as high as it was last year even with the reduced number of entries. Our Platinum sponsors are the Clarence Valley Council, the GDSC, The Chemist Warehouse, South Grafton Bendigo Bank, and the Village Green/ Good Intent Hotels. We have also had great support from our community.

The tournament is run mostly by volunteers from the club committee and Tennis Australia officials. Our highest-ranked player this year is ranked at 28 of all women in Australia, Alicia Smith. We are very pleased to welcome such a highly ranked female as Alicia to our tournament. Our number 1 seed of the men’s is ranked 51 in Australia, James Ibrahim. We also welcome back our 4 times winner of the tournament, Brendon Moore.

Ayesha Beckman