The 2013-14 tennis season gets under way with a bang today with the annual Dunlop Slazenger Wanganui Open taking place from this weekend and through to Wednesday.
Following the Open is the Wanganui Tennis Club Open day on Saturday, October 5, where the club will to continue the momentum created during last season's tennis resurgence.
The entry numbers in this year's Wanganui Open remain healthy with the majority of players coming from the Tennis Central area, which is from Wellington to Taranaki and everything in between.
A big draw card for this year's event is that everyone who enters goes into the draw to win tickets to the 2014 Australian Open in Melbourne.
The Wanganui tournament is also the first tournament of the Tennis Central points race, which is very popular with the junior players because the Top 8 at the end of the season get invited to trial for the Tennis Central rep team.
A solid gang of local players will show up at the tournament looking to put in a big effort at their home court.
Wanganui's Zach Farmer is seeded second in the Boys 10's age group while in the same age group Henry Strang and Aleesha Duxfield are playing their debut 'open' tournament.
The biggest numbers are again in the 12's Boys and the 14's Boys where the draw sizes are 21 and 18 players-strong respectively, including five Wanganui lads in both draws.
In the 16's Boys draw, Wanganui's Hamish Mead is the second seed while he is also doubling up and playing in the men's open event.
The very tough 12's age group will see local girls Tessa Strang and Basia Sosnowska being confident after coming fresh out of a winter coaching programme from tennis professional Victor Romero.
Similarly in the Girls 14's draw, Gabrielle Hiri will be in with a good shot against her Wellington opponents despite being unseeded.
And in the Girls 16's, Paris Butters has made great strides over the winter due to the influence of Romero, and illustrated by her good results at a recent Tennis Central rep trial which propelled her into the squad.
Following immediately after the tournament the Wanganui Tennis Club are opening up to the public 'free back to tennis coaching' for anyone that wants to give tennis a try again or for the first time.
It is from 5.45pm to 7pm every Wednesday during the month of October. Then the club's Open day will take place next Saturday and is open to anyone curious about what they have to offer. There will be a BBQ and lots of fun games for children and adults of all ages.
It is exciting to see what will happen this year as Wanganui tennis looks to keep growing and creating opportunities for its junior and adult players.