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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Sunday Shootout tennis makes a big smash

Peter White
By Peter White
Sports writer·Bay of Plenty Times·
10 Dec, 2017 07:12 PM3 mins to read

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Top New Zealand junior Caelan Potts, 16, in action at the Golden Homes Sunday Shootout. PHOTO/GEORGE NOVAK

Top New Zealand junior Caelan Potts, 16, in action at the Golden Homes Sunday Shootout. PHOTO/GEORGE NOVAK

To paraphrase Dr McCoy from Star Trek "it is tennis, but not as we know it".

The Golden Homes Sunday Shootout held at the Mount Maunganui Tennis Club on Sunday was the second in the unique series created by Jason Helms.

The former tournament pro from Rotorua came up with the idea to try and replicate the success of Twenty20 cricket by creating a fast-paced version of tournament tennis where men, women and top juniors get to compete against each other.

No more drawn out three-set tie-breakers and long games with endless advantage and deuce points. The new format is just one set long, with no advantage and has been a rousing success in the two tournaments played so far.

"It came out of a couple of mates having a beer and just talking about it really. It sounded like a great idea. Now you can see that people are more into fast sports like sevens and T20 cricket and tennis numbers have dropped," Helms said.

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"I think we need something that creates an atmosphere and attracts a lot of people but also it gets our juniors involved playing our top guys in New Zealand. I have never come across men playing women in the world except for Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean King (1973). I knew Bobby really well when he used to train me back in the day."

At no other tournament could a rising star on the national junior scene in Otumoetai's Caelan Potts, 16, in one afternoon play against a top women's veteran player in Debbie Garea and New Zealand-ranked men's singles players Rhett Purcell and Alex Klintcharov.

On Sunday Potts gave former New Zealand number one junior Klintcharov, 21, quite a scare before going down 6-4 in the closest of the quarter-finals.

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Defending champion Purcell, 21, beat Sean Martin 6-1 in one semi with Klintcharov winning 6-3 over Daniel Brown. The final was full of booming groundstrokes and big serves with Purcell heading Klintcharov 6-4 to take the $1000 prize money.

Aucklander Purcell loves the new format and is looking forward to being back on January 7 to win a hat-trick of titles.

"It is completely different the format of this tournament. It is just one set and sudden death deuce scoring. I have never played anything like it before. It is exciting to play, it is fun and it is really unpredictable so anyone can win," he said.

"It is also interesting to get to play against different players. It is a good experience for juniors to be able to play against different types of players and ages."

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Among the good-sized crowd watching was Jim Dykes, who can track his tennis history at the Mount Tennis Club back to the 1950s. He loves the new format.

"It is bloody great mate. It is good for the club and members can see some really good tennis rather than having to go up to Auckland. It is good for the game," he said.

The final Golden Homes Sunday Shootout is on January 8 at the Mount Maunganui Tennis Club from 3.30pm to 6.30pm. Free entry.

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