WITH just over two weeks to go until the Australian Open, one local volunteer has decided to engage with the community to get behind Swan Hill’s tournament representative Novak Djokovic.
The world number one was picked by the Swan Hill Lawn Tennis and Croquet club to represent the city in the first grand slam of the year after a nationwide competition by Tennis Australia judged the Mallee the best.
To gain interest, Letitia Jonkers created a Facebook page called ‘get behind the Mallee Djoker’ to show off the achievements of the town’s adopted Serbian-son.
With competitions already underway, Mrs Jonkers said using social media to get the town to interact with the Mallee Djoker would benefit the community.
“Basically I decided it would be a good way to make the most of the opportunity that we have, having Novak play for Swan Hill in the Open, and social media is a great tool for things like this,” she said.
“My biggest goal is to try and get the wider community really involved and build the relationship between the Tennis Club and the rest of Swan Hill.
“We wanted to get people to the page and build some interest and get people to feel like they are apart of Novak’s journey throughout the Australian Open.”
One of the current competitions taking place is to re-create a famous Novak action shot for their chance to win a free tennis club membership.
As the Facebook page continues to get traction, with more than 300 people liking the page at time of publication, Mrs Jonkers said she hoped it would encourage someone to show the page to the world’s best tennis player.
“I would love him to come to Swan Hill but for now we hope he comes across the page and likes it or comments somewhere,” she told The Guardian.
“It was after discussions with a few people that we thought we would get this page started and tried to come up with something different that melded the area and Novak together.
“There were so many people who put in a lot of effort to even get this to happen and it is a great opportunity and I hope we get everyone helping and see what happens.”
Mrs Jonkers is also going to attempt to encourage local business owners to advertise the page and help get the community behind the Mallee Djoker.
To like the page, visit Facebook.com/malleejoker
