Fall in Canada is marked by the colorful foliage. Only a few weeks will witness the color change from occasional gold and red to an overwhelming flame on the mountains and the skyline.
Snow will bring the long winter which lingers until next year. Thus is the reason why Quebequeors value the nice cool summer.
Due to the pandemic, tennis courts have suffered closures and severe restrictions early in the year. Tennis players cheered and jumped when Triple-A Tennis continued to organize various activities in addition to the annual Triple-A Asian Charity tournament. Thanks to Abigail, a fervent tennis lover as the driving force behind these activities, several tennis events were held by Triple-A Tennis with the help of the enthusiastic volunteers.
“Living the moment” is the lesson all tennis players learned from the pandemic. Seize the day and rejoice in building health on court is the harvest of the year.
Sino-Korean Friendship Tournaments (July 31st, Aug. 8th)
Tennis players from the Korean community invited the counterparts from Chinese community for two days of team tournament. Each round consisted of five rounds of ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles, totalling sixteen matches.
In the first rounds of singles a simple pro-set (8 games) took over two hours, quite a marathon! Paul, a young player of the Sino team had a hard time playing the experienced Korean opponent Kit-Chan. After adjusting his tactics, Paul came back from 2:6 to narrowly claim the match at 9:8 (6).
Ladies’ singles followed the gentlemen’s. Other than Minzhi He who took her match easily, all other three players on Korean team from the Chinese community fought vigorously to win three points for Korean team. Both teams shared equal matches on singles and mixed doubles. Sino team finally won by the doubles on the first encounter.
On August 8th the five rounds of twenty matches were played due to more players joining the event. Li Yu, Jane and Wenjuan from Ottawa again joined hands with Judy and other players from Montreal to support Korean team.Those aids coupled with the Korean strong players were able to finally won at 12:8, a token of sportsmanship demonstrated by Montreal Chinese tennis community.
In between matches (R: Korean tennis baby Daniel Bae)
The 9th Triple-A Asian Charity Tennis Tournament (Sep 4th-5th)
The 9th Triple-A Asian Charity Tennis Tournament continued to play only singles as affected by pandemic. Six categories were played: U12, U18, Gentlemen’s 18+, 35+, 50+, and Ladies’ singles.
On the beautiful and sunny Saturday Sep 4th. The tournament took place at the outdoor courts in Club CDL. The U12 and U18 started first. Quite a few juniors returned to the competition. A remarkable improvement was witnessed.
On the gentlemen’s side, the competition was rather fierce. The match for the medal lasted over two hours. This marathon match added so much difficulty to other matches. Fortunately the matches were completed as planned.
Rain was forecasted on Sunday Sep 5th. Although indoor courts were available, the newly required vaccine passport prevented all players from going indoor. The organizer decided to still carry on the event outdoor. The players in the semi finals fought hard on every point. Five of the matches were decided by tie-breaker with very close scores. The run to the ladies’ and gentlemen’s medals was the feast for audience off the court.
Even the weather cooperated. The imminent rainfall waited until after all matches concluded.
Special thanks to the generous sponsors: TennisTek, Aux Cinq Parfums, Realtor Yang Liang and Jingwu Lo Wei. Your support was vital to the success of the tournament. Thank you all!
The results of the 2021 9th Triple-A Asian Tennis Charity Tournament:
Awards are presented to the winners
Tri-City Friendship Tournament
The three lady players from Ottawa who played on the Korean team to fight in the Sino-Korean friendship competition did not have enough tennis on Aug. 8th. They propsed an Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal Tri-City Friendship Tournament. The idea was applauded and quickly concreted. The players from the three cities met at the City View Tennis Club in Ottawa on Sunday, September 26th.
Only doubles were planned. Sixteen Montreal tennis players were divided into two teams to compete with Toronto and Ottawa teams, sixteen matches in total (gentlemen’s, ladies and mixed doubles). At the end, Ottawa hosts also arranged doubles to mix players from both cities.
Toronto team arrived at Ottawa on Saturday and played the host team until 10pm. On Sunday Montreal teams first played Totonto team. With the aid from the host and a small home game advantage, Toronto team led by a small margin.
Ottawa team was well prepared to compete against Montreal teams. The strong lineup won over several matches, well taking the lead. The Montreal players were inspired and motivated. They were determined to practice harder in order to play Ottawa next year.
Right: Tennis diversity (from right to left), Egyptian, Malaysian, Chinese and Korean
Ottawa hosts not only organized tennis matches, they cooked and baked delicious food and snacks for the visitors.
The dinner was served at a local seafood restaurant. The food was delicious, the laughter everywhere, and the self-introduction interesting. Tennis and food go hand in hand to form the friendship among cities!
Post Season Review
The success of all events relies on the joint efforts of all players. Every step must be carefully planned and executed.
Thanks to Lori, who presided the chief umpire to centrally control the match progress and keep track of the scores. Thanks to Judy, Wei, Hong Peng, Susie and Jian, who joined hands to reserve the courts. Thanks to Minzhi, who took care of all players’ needs in compiling the matches (which she made seven versions!). Thanks to Joanna, Susie, Wei, Haitao and Stella who provided general services. Special thanks to all the professional and amateur photographers, who captured wonderful moments to rejoice years to come.
Left: Lori Middle: all the volunteers Right: take time to relax
As the winter is at the door step, outdoor tennis has to draw a close. In the past year the life has been quietly changing due to the pandemic. Tennis has one of the safest social distancing has been increasingly popular as THE sport to fight the pandemic. Indeed, those who kept on training during the closure are far more in shape both physically and mentally than those who did not.
Living the moment. As we say farewell to 2021’s colorful summer, we will continue to seize the time to make ourselves better.
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