AO One Point Slam
Wasn’t this a whole lot of fun!
To recap, Tennis Australia was keen to build on the $1 million 1 Point Slam, held for the first time at the Australian Open last year, and so encouraged Clubs to host their own local competitions.
Our Committee thought it was a great inclusion to the CBTC events calendar, so set about organising an event for members and the community, which was held last Sunday November 1. 22 eager hopefuls turned up to compete. As the name suggests, competition is a one point only knockout format so players of all ages and abilities can get lucky. Winning the toss can be vitally important if you’ve got a big booming serve to win that one point, but other strategies like sending your opponent to serve into a blazing sun, playing percentage tennis rather than going for big winners and good old-fashioned trash talk all came into play!
A huge thanks to Bruce and Paula Scheffers who expertly ran our event and also provided a sensational music soundtrack to the on-court action. Tracks like “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, “Another One Bites The Dust”, “I Will Survive”, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and ‘Mr Damage” for Big Sam Tomlinson were a hilarious accompaniment to the hijinks on court.
After a whole bunch of excitement, Brandon Lehmann (born in Indonesia, living in Forestville, coaching for Voyager) and Sam Tomlinson made it to the final. Sam won the toss and got a great first serve in, which Brandon returned, with Sam’s next huge forehand narrowly missing the sideline. Bad luck Sam! Congratulations to 19-year-old Brandon who now goes through to the NSW finals at Sydney Olympic Park on November 22 to represent CBTC. If Brandon wins, our Club receives a $5000 grant. Also competing in the NSW finals is CBTC Evolve coach Shaik who won another 1 Point Slam event held at Sylvania. Good luck to both Brandon and Shaik.
The NSW winner will head to Melbourne for the $1 million prize final at the AO in January, with the winner’s affiliated Club receiving a $50,000 grant. And just to prove we know how to put grant money to good use, check out our spectators under our new spectator shade.
Thanks to Head Chef Chris for the sausage sizzle that finished off another terrific CBTC event!
