2022 UofT Tennis Club Championship

The U of T Tennis Club Championships is an annual event I started this year as the annual tennis tournament open to all U of T students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Unlike the Varsity Tennis Team, we are open to all levels of players (including Varsity). The winner of the tournament is crowned our Club Champions.

About the Event #

The UofT Tennis Club Championship was held at the University of Toronto Scarborough Tennis Centre, a purpose-built tennis centre for the 2015 Parapan Am Games. The 8-court, state-of-the-art facility hosted 54 participants from October 8th-9th, 2022 for a weekend full of tennis events. This year, we were able to run Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Singles, and Mixed Doubles events. Every participant had to be a member of the Club ($10), and pay the tournament fee of $15 (or $25 for singles and doubles). Since we had weekly practices happening on Friday afternoons and Saturday evenings since April, this was a much hyped and well attended event.

Matches get underway on day 1 morning

Day 1: Tournament gets underway! #

Today’s events were: Men’s Singles Qualifiers, Rd 32 and Rd 16.

The day started off bright and early at 9am with games starting in the Rd 32. I arrived by transit, lugging a suitcase full of 30+ cans of tennis balls from the St. George Campus. I must say that the walk through the forest was spectacular though.

When I arrived at the courts, I wasn’t too surprised to see around half-a-dozen players already there and warming up for the matches for the day. These were some die-hard tennis fans.

Luckily for me, I soon found out from the reception desk (staffed by students), that we had 6 courts booked instead of 4. Since I had already decided the draws and the schedule of events a week prior, I pivoted to use the extra courts for consolation matches and practice matches. This worked out well, with games running on time.

The matches were very entertaining and lots of new and familiar faces from our weekly practices showed up to try their luck.

There were few beginners and matches were competitive, which was an amazing sight to see.

An and Theo played a competitive first match of the tournament!

Day 2: Tournament heats up and champions are crowned! #

Today’s events were: Men’s Singles Rd 8, Rd 4, Championship, Men’s Doubles Rd 8, Rd 4, Championship, Women’s Singles Rd 4, Championship, Mixed Doubles Championship

The day started bright and early again at 9am. This time, I lugged another suitcase full of tennis balls, t-shirts, and unfortunately no medals. As the sole organizer, there wasn’t enough time to get all the medals that I ordered one week prior. I arrived with a Lyft with one of the participants since the TTC was on its weekly “maintenance”.

The weather was a bit chillier than the day before, but games were no less intense. The first match of the day at 9am was the most intense one I watched. Since we had some people play their Rd 8 game a day earlier, there was only one game that went on at 9. This game between Siddarth and Mau was spectacular. Balls were shot in the corner, balls were crushed, and both players had momentum at certain points. However, Mau, the eventual champion, won the match.

Men’s Doubles then got underway, and everyone showed up for the fun festivities. I thought it went pretty well, and games were also very intense.

Women’s Singles got underway and unfortunately we only had 4 women playing this tournament. Linda cruised to victory over the competition.

Mixed Doubles was also contested, and we had 1 championship match. I thought these were pleasant draws.

The tournament ended with the prize ceremonies and players went home with their UTTC t-shirts, gift cards, and invitations to our upcoming tournament with Skule Tennis Club.

Men’s Singles Championship players: Mau (champion) and An (finalist)

Reflection on event #

The following are my reflection notes on how the event went and what we can do to improve.

What went well: #

• Good turnout from a lot of people
• Was great seeing a lot of different skill levels represented
• People came out to play because they wanted to experience match play, meet a community, and foster connections
• I think people were able to do all that
• The goal wasn’t really the prize fund - it wasn’t advertised much.
• The goal was mainly the community i think
• It was great to see people exchanging phone contacts and talking about tennis
• The facility at UTSC was really amazing Ron helped a ton, very helpful guy
• Courts were great, and communications were great with staff
• They had someone there with first aid training to help us.
• Instagram feedback was really good. Images posted there had really good views. Was fun as Tournament Director posting there
• Would be good getting the instagram contacts of all winners (if they want to be showcased)
• Atmosphere was supportive

An amazing view of the courts.

Things to improve on #

• Scheduling of matches. Games need to start on time, and warmups no longer than 7 minutes. One warmup was ~20 minutes, too long!
• Scheduling doubles/singles. Not really safe to have people playing the entire day with doubles/singles.
• Starting at 9am at UTSC is very difficult. Would be better to start at 10am
• Request 6 courts from the beginning. Would have allowed much more people (RD64), or a full consolation draw. 6 courts worked without any problems on their end (they weren’t busy on the first two courts)
• Camera quality needs to be improved. Could do well with a better camera to take pictures
• Weather: weather in general was good. Was chilly and a bit windy at times. Wind screens helped prevent wind on court. Would be better to play 1-2 weeks in advance.
• Take into account more withdrawals. Perhaps have a few more backups
• Consider doing a consolation draw for Men’s Singles (optional, but at least there’s a draw)
• Get the medals in advance
• Get a better banner for indicating the Club Bring duck tape. Signs flew away a bunch of times. We used clear tape, but that wasn’t the best
• Print out certificates in advance as well. We need certificates for the winners to do a prize draw
• Recruiting more women to play in the event. We need to determine why people didn’t register. Then tackle the problem.
• Music during the event? When people aren’t playing, or maybe at a less loud sound.
• Bring more snacks, especially drinks. People would have liked Gatorade. We didn’t have enough juice boxes or cookies. The cookies were really good. Juice boxes and chocolates were eaten very quickly.
• Bring more tennis balls! We could of had more tennis balls so that every match had enough tennis balls.
• Find a way to save the tennis balls. A Pressureball product might help us keep the balls in shape and bouncing.
• Better carpool strategy. Is there a way that people can carpool as a group of 4 sanctioned by the Club? People would probably use that service. ~$10 per person one way. Or, have a person just driving?

Takeshi and I were able to hit a few shots during the tournament.

I was the sole tournament director and organizer for the entire weekend tournament.

By: Victor Zheng, Tournament Director & VP of Courts/Practices, Events, Practices, and Tournaments