TENNIS world number one Novak Djokovic will represent Swan Hill at this year’s Australian Open after a grassroots campaign catapulted the rural city to the top of a national leader board.
Free Tennis Day, an initiative by Tennis Australia, encouraged clubs to host tennis events and sign people up to local clubs with the winners receiving the chance to pick which player would represent the region.
Last week, word came through to the Swan Hill Lawn Tennis and Croquet club they had done enough to be crowned the winners, picking their champion Novak to represent the town.
The Serbian superstar has won four of the past five Australian Opens and if he takes the top prize in 2016, the trophy will come to Swan Hill, and the Djoker may even make an appearance himself.
Swan Hill Lawn Tennis and Croquet club coach David Jonkers said he saw the opportunity to make a difference for the sport in the region when he first found out about the competition.
“I wanted to promote the sport in Swan Hill and take it out to the people instead of those coming into the club,” he said.
“We realised we could get a player to represent us at the Australian Open and we took that chance and organised a visual event at the Swan Hill show.
“We wanted to get it in front of people to see if they were interested in registering … we held two Free Tennis Days at the show and then a couple weeks after they put the leader board out and we were number one at the start of October.”
For more on this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (December 18).
