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Sunderland Wheelchair Tennis Tournament
| Published: 31st March 2009 12:06 |
AboutMyArea went along to this event at the Sunderland Tennis Centre over the weekend. We spoke firstly to the Tournament Director, John Schofield. He has been running this competition for 14 years, and it has grown into one of only 3 ITF World Ranking events in the UK - the others being the GB Open and an indoor tournament in Nottingham. Durham & Cleveland LTA have provided funding for this year and last, but are unlikely to be able to do so again next year. The tournament is looking for a commercial sponsor, willing to put in an amount of perhaps £8,000 to £10,000 per year, in order to keep its World Ranking status.
Anyone interested can contact John on 01642 884 107 or send him an e-mail.
We watched a match between John Robertson ( the Paralympic sailing gold medallist from Sunderland ) and Alex Krol from Liverpool.You can see a short clip of this match on the AboutMyArea Facebook page.
Also watching this match were two people who regularly play wheelchair tennis at Sunderland Tennis Centre - John Crozier from Newcastle & Ross McConnell from Boldon.
John Crozier and Ross McConnell, at the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tournament in Sunderland.
John has been playing for about 12 years, after being introduced to the sport at a course run by John Schofield - having previously concentrated on playing and coaching wheelchair basketball. Ross started about 5 years ago, and both now play twice a week at the centre, along with John Robertson. Anyone wanting to try wheelchair tennis themselves is welcome to go down between 10am and 12noon any Tuesday or Thursday.
( The Tennis Centre phone number is 0191 553 5901, if you want to check in advance )
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A Preview of the Tournament Tennis News from BBC Sport
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