THE tiny township of Kendall just inland from Port Macquarie might be down – but it’s far from out.
Close to 200 people packed Kendall Tennis Club’s small facility on Sunday night to see Rafael Nadal contest the Australian Open men’s final.
As part of the prize for winning the online AO Blitz competition, the town ‘won’ a tennis player to represent them. Kendall chose world number 1 Rafael Nadal to play for them. The stakes were high: if he won, Tennis Australia would throw the whole town a party and their lead point scorer in the AO Blitz also stood to win $10,000.
Emotions ran high right from the start on Sunday night, when the crowd was played a personal message from Nadal: ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PaD3qU8IBM
The crowd felt the pain through the first two sets, with Rafa losing the first set easily and then suffering a back injury in the second but battling back to win the third set, eventually going down to eighth seed Stan Wawrinka in the fourth.
Tennis club president Wendy Hudson had been in Melbourne for most of the tournament because one of her sons was a ball boy at the Australian Open, but had decided to return to Kendall to watch the final to be with the community.
She said Rafa’s injury and subsequent loss made it a somewhat sombre finish – her own son Rhyan had been in the running to win $10,000 as the town’s leading point scorer in the AO Blitz if Rafa won – but the club members and town’s residents were still very proud of their achievement in winning the Blitz and the community spirit they showed.
“I was overwhelmed by the crowd that showed in support,” Mrs Hudson said.
“What a great community I live in.”
Club VP Phil Robinson said the loan of the big screen TV from Harvey Norman and the large project screen from Ian Rosendahl helped make the night a tremendous occasion.
Part of the reason the club spearheaded Kendall’s entry into the competition was to publicise their quest to build more tennis courts to cope with the waiting list of players, and he and Mrs Hudson said it would now be full steam ahead with the project.
“It doesn’t stop now,” Mr Robinson said.
“We have courts to build and kids to get off waiting list!”
He added that the town wining the AO Blitz and subsequent publicity had resulted in another 20 members signing up and club membership was expected to reach 300 in the next week.
Mrs Hudson said the tennis club now had a waiting list of members to join adult competitions as well as junior competitions, with the town’s existing three tennis courts simply unable to cope.
“People are proud of our achievements and will play socially until they can get into competition,” Mrs Hudson said.
“Our coaching numbers and days have now reached their maximum to cater for those not getting into competitions.“
The club is still looking for a corporate sponsor, but has enough money to prepare the site for new courts and get a temporary building in place, which would enable them to apply for further grants.
“I just hope council moves quickly, now that the land purchase is complete for our new centre,” Mr Robinson said.
