THE weather may have been hot, but the tennis was even hotter across the three-day Gateway Australia Day Tournament held in Merriwa Park over the long weekend.

The Wangaratta Lawn Tennis Croquet and Pickleball Club (WLTCP) hosted 409 entrants from Saturday through to Monday which, combined with hundreds of additional spectators, family members, volunteers and support crew, made for an electric, carnival-like atmosphere across the gorgeous grass courts.

WLTCP president Barry Sullivan said the entire event was expertly run and enjoyable for all who made their way to the courts.

“The tournament went fantastically well, there was lots of competition,” he said.

“There were well over 400 participants, and you add on all the volunteers, support staff, family members who came to watch, at times on Saturday there would’ve been 700, 800 people around the court area, easy.

“The courts held up brilliantly – after three days of activity, we could’ve played another three days.

“It was a credit to the curator, Adrian Pantling, and Max McAuliffe who is our greens committee head, a fantastic effort from them.

“It’s getting bigger and bigger every year, the feedback we had from most people was outstanding.”

The premier events on the schedule, the men’s and women’s Open Singles tournaments, were hotly contested.

In the men’s, Sam Thompson from Grace Park in Hawthorn managed to defeat top-seed from Kooyong Jeremy Taylor 7-5 6-4, while Belle Thompson claimed a record-equalling eighth ladies title over Phillipa Bush 6-2 6-0.

“Our Open Singles finalists played some awesome tennis,” Sullivan said.

“They put on an absolute classic exhibition, and on Sunday night there were lots of people down there until late watching the semi-finals under lights and commenting on how fantastic the standard of tennis was.”

Sullivan said the hot weather had caused some matches to be moved around, but everyone emerged unscathed.

“The weather was a bit of a challenge on the Monday, we knew it was going to get very hot so we tried to schedule in as many games as we could on the Sunday,’ he said.

“That put a lot of pressure on everybody, but we ended up getting through that.

“We had to move some matches across to the Monday, but we ended up finishing around 1pm, 1.30pm which was before the real hot temperature kicked in.

“There was some medical treatment, band-aids for blisters and things like that.

“One guy did actually run into the gate and fence and hurt himself a bit, but we were lucky we had two doctors on hand to sort him out.”

With this year’s tournament in the books, excitement is already building for the 2026 edition, which will be a special milestone for the Australia Day competition at WLTCP.

“Everyone’s already excited for next year, which will be the 100th running of our Australia Day tournament,” Sullivan said.

“People who couldn’t come this year have apologised and they’re going to come next year, they said they’re going to bring extra players.

“It’s going to put a lot of pressure on all of us to consider how many players we can actually entertain.

“It’s a good problem to have.”

Sullivan wished to thank all competitors, committee members and volunteers for their assistance in helping the event run as smoothly as it did, as well as major sponsors Quality Hotel Wangaratta Gateway and Johansen Insurance Brokers.