Gulf Harbour Tennis Season Underway

Tennis Boot Camp Sizzles

The sizzling summer heat did not dissuade our hardy Gulf Harbour tennis nuts…uh, I mean tennis lovers from swatting the yellow orb across the net during our annual Tennis Boot Camp. Although the temps were in the mid-nineties all four days of the event, even our most, uhm, “experienced” tennis members, Pat and Bernie Nolan, endured wilting weather to the scorching end. Major kudos to all who braved the mid-day inferno!

Tennis Pros from local clubs such as Scotty Harrington of Legends, Shawn Hedrick of Cascades, and Terry See of The Landings (among others) joined your tennis staff to fling plenty of fuzzy felt at the diehards who came to prepare for their team’s season, or just to enjoy the workout in the sun. The feedback I received suggested that the vast majority of the attendees felt their attendance was well worth their while. 

Halloween Tennis Around the Corner

If you like costumes as well as tennis, then your favorite event is next on the tennis menu. Consumate event organizer Tim Baldwin has the reins on this one, so it's guaranteed fun. This is the one event wear looking good trumps playing well. Some may argue good looks trump good play any day, and unless there's high finances involved in winning, I might have to agree.

But I've digressed haven't I? The essence of Halloween tennis is that you get weirdly dressed in some outfit that allows you to play at least a little tennis.

LCWTL Teams off and Running

Gulf Harbour’s women’s Lee County Women’s Tennis League (LCWTL) teams are off to a good start, with the 50-Plus Bronze and 50-Plus Silver Belles winning their opening matches this week. Our USTA Mixed Doubles team takes to the courts for the first time on Saturday, October 24, at 12:00pm at home, and our men’s teams won’t begin play until November, and their schedules will be posted as well as they become available. Don’t forget that you can review team information on the Club Website’s tennis pages under the Tennis Teams and Leagues link.

Men's Singles Ladders
We hope that getting off to good starts is contagious at Gulf Harbour, because our Men’s Singles Ladders officially begin play this week. Although we have lost a few warriors to injury for the Fall Season, we still have 18 players registered for the two initial ladders. Singles ladder play offers excellent opportunities for players to improve their singles skills prior to participating in the Club Championships in the spring, and is a terrific source of cardiovascular exercise. Read more about the ladders here and click click on the following respective to actually see ladder participants, latest results, etc.: Group B, Group A.

USTA Junior Team Tennis

In case you haven’t heard, our junior players have become more active competitively, and Joel has taken on the responsibility of managing our USTA Junior Team Tennis (JTT) team. Thus far the teams have played twice and in our most recent match on 10/10, Max Margolin won three matches (1 singles, two doubles) to help our 18-and-under team (all but one player is 14-and-under) to a 7-5 victory over Punta Gorda. Jacob Glasser also contributed to the team victory with a doubles win. The team holds a 1-1 record at this writing.

Our 12-and-under team is also 1-1 having posted an opening day victory against Rutenberg before losing last Saturday against Lee County, the top team in the League. Every player on our team contributed in the team victory against Rutenberg, with Cameron Sadighi providing three points; Simon Negin, Isabel Leigh, and Eve Bailey contributing two points each; and Danny Glasser and Jared Fleishman adding one point each. All matches are played on Saturday afternoons at Rutenberg Park, beginning at 12:30pm.

USPTA Pro League
The USPTA Pro League, title-sponsored by Ritzman Tennis, Gulf Harbour’s primary court maintenance company, will begin play on Friday the 23rd at Legends. This year all three of your tennis pros are on different teams, so there will be two disappointed tennis pros at Gulf Harbour at season’s end. You can read about the Pro League, including a review of the team rosters and schedule by clicking here.

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