Tennis Sydney started in 1989 when a group of Sunday social players (including Ross Sinclair, Scott Ferguson, Brian Adams and Owen Gallagher) formed the first committee to organise and coordinate gay tennis activities in Sydney.
In 1989, a tennis tournament was put together at Kingsford Tennis Centre as part of the Mardi Gras sporting calendar. Since then an annual Mardi Gras Tournament has been held at various venues.
In 1995, the first Spring Tournament, named after Tennis Sydney legend Peter Deacon, was held. The Mardi Gras and the Peter Deacon Spring Tournaments are currently the two major tournaments held by Tennis Sydney each year.
In 1995, the extremely successful Virginia Slims Competition was started by Craig Hunt so that there was an ongoing competition throughout the year. These mid-week seasonal competitions are the staple events of Tennis Sydney. Originally 8 players for the initial tour, it quickly doubles to 16 and so the Virginia Slims Thursday night competition was born.
At that stage the competitions were run independently of Tennis Sydney by Craig. However, it quickly became a popular event and soon after the President of Tennis Sydney, Peter Deacon, suggested to Craig that he come onto the committee and run it under the auspices of Tennis Sydney. And so it became a formal Tennis Sydney event which continued to grow in numbers with some competitions hosting more than 80 players.
Craig continued to run the night competition for 10 years before deciding to take a break
Tennis Sydney has gone from strength to strength since its humble beginnings and many of the players who started the club and its events are still playing regularly today.
History
