One of the longest running tournaments in Metro Vancouver concludes with championship Sunday at the Richmond Tennis Club.
The 55th annual Richmond Open has brought roughly 300 entries to the Minoru Park facility for numerous draws that began a week ago. The women’s Open Division final is slated for 12:30 p.m. and the Men’s Open championship match follows at 2 p.m. Both are best-of-three sets.
“The tournament is sanctioned by Tennis B.C. and is part of their Summer Series that also includes Burnaby, Coquitlam, Delta and Stanley Park,” explained RTC president Kim Jensen. “We used to always be the first tournament of the season in May but they changed it this year. We are hoping to go back to the original date as there would be even more entries.”
While the event is administered by Tennis B.C., including seeding and scheduling, it takes a considerable effort by about 50 club volunteers to pull it off.
“The nitty gritty part is done by Tennis B.C., we look after things like concession, monitoring courts to ensure the schedule is going smoothly and also working at the tournament desk where players check in before their matches,” continued Jensen, who is typically putting in 12 hour days himself. “My job as much as anything is to round up the people that are required to make this a professional-looking tournament.”
Entering play Thursday, the top seeds in the men and women’s Open draws — Justin Guay and Juliet Jian Wen Zhang — were through to quarter-final and semi-final play respectively.
Guay, 24, is a McRoberts graduate who played collegiately at the University of Portland. He also happens to be an assistant professional at the RTC.
Baselines…
The club wishes to clarify a story that ran in the July 7 edition of the News on the newly-formed the Richmond Park Tennis Association that took exception to the RTC requesting the use of two public courts for evening lessons during the summer.
The lessons would not be for club members.
“We have had a lease with the city since 1962. Part of that obligation is provide lessons on public courts, not for our members, but for members of the public,” explained Jensen. “In effect, we are like the Steveston or Thompson Community Centres. We have had a tradition of having public lessons on these courts forever.”
City staff decided to only designate one court for evening public lessons. The RTC and the Minoru Tennis Association are expected to meet with the city this fall to discuss next year’s court availability.
