World Tennis Day is coming on March 10th and the headliner for that days celebrations will be the BNP Paribas Showdown at Madison Square Garden (MSG) featuring Roger Federer taking on Grigor Dimitrov, and Monica Seles playing Gabriela Sabatini.
Given the deep snow and deep freeze we are experiencing we thought that maybe a little ice tennis or snow tennis would be an appropriate suggestion to celebrate World Tennis Day here in Ontario. Here are a few items on the topic as food for thought.
At St. James Tennis Club in Ottawa they have had a public skating rink built on top of their courts for the last two winters. John Wins-Purdy, the OTA’s regional coordinator in Ottawa was instrumental in bringing this about and he located a custom made liner for the rink which protects the courts. Although the primary motivation for doing this was to provide the local community with a replacement for the public rink that was lost, the venture has created a great sense of cooperation between the tennis club and the local community. Last winter they held a rink party with tennis on ice, curling, hockey, figure skating and various skating and shooting competitions (with help from the local police and their radar gun!). You can check out the live action at St. James Club as they have a rink cam at http://www.stjamestennis.ca/
Ice tennis was played first in the 1930s as
shown in this video but has never really caught on as a regular pursuit.
Our friends in Manitoba played tennis on World Tennis Day last year. You can check out their video of tennis in the snow at http://tennismanitoba.blogspot.ca/2014/03/world-tennis-day-in-winnipeg.html
No matter whether you choose to celebrate World tennis
day indoors or outdoors or not at all remember that playing tennis makes every
day better.
