By Salt Spring Tennis Association
The Rajsic Classic combined age tennis tournament ended with all eight finals going indoors to complete a very successful event on the May long weekend.
The tournament is in its third year, and honours former club member Roy Rajsic, who always wanted to support junior tennis on Salt Spring.
Club professional Pete Schelling came up with the idea of hosting a seniors tournament where players could have fun, play lots of matches and socialize. All money raised goes towards the junior tennis programs that run throughout the year. Juniors are given discounted lessons in the fall and winter programs. There were over 50 juniors that participated this past season.
“It’s what Roy would have wanted,” Schelling said.
Rajsic’s wife Marg Benmore also created a scholarship this year that will help two juniors with all of their lesson fees for the upcoming season. A cheque for $500 was presented to Schelling for the program.
There were nearly 40 teams that participated in the weekend event. Players came mostly from Vancouver and Vancouver Island with one player coming from California.
The weather was perfect for all of the round robin matches but Monday was a washout.
Having two indoor courts to play on, the finals were completed without any problems.
Results:
Ladies 80s- Local player Erica Ross and club pro Marjorie Blackwood defeated locals Donna Wrigley and Justene Tedder 8- 5
Ladies 100s- Vancouver’s Deb Orange and Tracey MacKinlay narrowly defeated Donna Wrigley and California’s Lis Andrade 8-6
Ladies 120s- Vancouver’s Brenda Cameron and Virginia Campbell defeated Cowichan’s Deb Hayhoe and Salt Spring’s Jenny Pickering 8-1
Men’s 100s- the father-son team of Mike Chin and David Chin defeated locals Tim Dubois and Markus Wenzel 8-1
Men’s 120s- Mike Chin and Blair Carley of Salt Spring defeated locals Murray Tevlin and David Youngson 8-1
Men’s 140s- Local player John Lapointe and Vancouver’s Ray Pollard defeated locals Wayne Wrigley and Fred Daniels 8-1
Mixed 100s- locals Marianne Banman and Markus Wenzel squeaked by with a win over Deb Orange and Blair Carley 8-7
Mixed 120s- Duncan’s Rita and Art Hobbs defeated Tracey MacKinlay and Mike Duggan 8-1
Mixed 140s- Locals Erica and Colin Ross defeated Lillian Lamb and Matt Huhtala of Vancouver Island by default.