On Saturday the Whistler Racket Club (WRC) hosted the third and final tennis tournament in its Summer Series.
The event, which was open to players from the 3.0 skill level (amateurs that can hold a rally) to 5.0 (advanced players), saw 60 players across four categories: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Men’s and Women’s Double’s, with players from all over the Sea to Sky and Vancouver.
“It was a success. Both Brackets were full, we had about 60 total players out and everyone had a great time, a lot of good competition,” said Jamie Grant, co-owner of the WRC. “Everyone got five or six matches in, it was just another great weekend and another really good vibe and another positive weekend for the tennis community in Whistler.”
Being a series of tournaments, the seeding for the final this past weekend was decided based on the finishes of the last two tournaments with returning players earning points towards their seeding.
Winners on the day included three-time Summer Series champions Chris Parker in the Men’s Singles and Cecilia Simon in the Women’s Singles along with the pairs of Gowtham Ashokkumar and Mike Conway, and Lynda Harnish and Alex Brooks Hill in the Men’s and Women’s Double’s.
Despite the original plan of this being the finale of the summer’s tennis scene, there has been enough demand for tennis that Grant and the club’s tennis director Valentin Toba decided to host a couple more tennis tournaments this fall.
Tournaments still to come this year include a junior tournament at the end of October and a mixed doubles tournament sometime in mid-October, which is something the club hasn’t been able to do yet this year because the brackets for the singles and doubles have filled up so fast.
“It’s been a nice problem,” said Grant. “But we haven’t done mixed doubles yet. So we are going to do a massive mixed doubles tournament with people from Vancouver, Whistler, Seattle and get all the best mixed doubles out and playing because, for me, those are the most fun and the most social.”
