More than 35 Airdrie athletes will compete in the Rogers Rookie Tennis tour when it hits the city on June 26.
The Airdrie and District Tennis Association will host the event, to be held in Airdrie for the first time, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the East Lake courts. The athletes, all of whom are involved with the ADTA’s lesson program, will range in age from five to adult.
“It’s mostly entry-level, so it will be competitors who haven’t really played that many tournaments before, if any,” said Chris Simnett, Airdrie and District Tennis Association president. “It will be their first taste of competition and anyone from anywhere can enter, although all my entrants thus far are from Airdrie.”
The Rogers Rookie Tour is a national program, run by Tennis Canada as its novice-level tour. The next step is the Challenger series for unranked players, followed by the Champs level for those who are ranked and looking to go to nationals.
The Rookie Tour’s format will be set up in a non-elimination fashion. Each match will be scored using the traditional tennis game format, but they will be timed at 20 minutes and then each player will rotate to play another opponent.
“If there is six kids, everyone gets five 20-minute matches in two hours, so it goes along pretty good,” Simnett said.
“We keep score, so there will be a first, second and third place, but nobody is ever knocked out and everyone will play the same number of matches. The way it was designed is that you can lose every one of your matches, but at the end you still get the same prize as whoever wins the whole thing. It’s more of a fun thing.”
Simnett is hoping to launch a community team tournament in mid-August, as well as bring back the Rogers Rookie Tour in September as a way to cap the season.
“It’s a national tour, so in Toronto there is a Rogers Rookie Tour exactly the same as the one in Airdrie,” he said. “The kids get the same prizes and it’s run the same way. I’m hoping people will enjoy it.”
The Rogers Rookie Tour will take place from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., June 26 at the East Lake tennis courts. The under-10 age group will play from 8 to 10 a.m., the U-12’s will go from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the U-14 group plays from 1 to 3:30 p.m., followed by the adult group from 4 to 6 p.m.
