IAPS Tennis Championships 2019
The weather forecast for the Spring bank holiday weekend was dry and sunny, ideal conditions for playing tennis!
On the eastern edge of Warwickshire lies Rugby, a bustling and historic market town. In the middle of the town sits Rugby School, where the IAPS tennis championships 2019 were hosted!
Rugby School boasts a whopping 35 courts, all on the same site – what a sight it was to see all those in use at the same time! There is an impressive pavilion, which has a 360 degree view across all of the courts, it is the perfect spot for watching the tournament unfold!
The tournament saw a change to what makes a team. In 2018 a team consisted of 2 boys and 2 girls (4 competitors in total). For 2019 a team was made up of either two boys or two girls. We have a number of schools that are boys or girls only, we made this change so that all schools could enter the competition if they wished.
Across the weekend every team played against at least 4 other teams. Every time you played another team you would each play a singles match and then a doubles match. It made the competition a big team effort and it was lovely to see the competitors rallying behind one another, supporting their peers!
To give you an idea of the scale of the event, we welcomed an incredible:
246 competitors
123 teams
38 schools
15 event staff
9 officials
∞ coaches and spectators
Every year we have our tournaments approved by the national governing body for tennis, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). This means all matches played count towards the competitors BTM ratings!
As an approved event, we had LTA officials there on the day to handle any problems competitors had on court.
The tournament follows the FAST4 format, which provides a simple and exciting way of speeding up tennis matches. The basics remain the same, but there are four rules that ensure matches are fast:
First to four games wins
It doesn’t matter how you get there, just make sure you do before your opponent does!
Tiebreaker at 3 games all
At 3 games all, a tie-break is played to 7 points, 2 clear at 6-6.
Match tie-break at 1 set all
If the score reaches 1 set all, a match tie-break is played to 10 points, 2 clear at 9-9
No ad scoring
If the score reaches deuce, it’s a sudden death point. The receiver chooses which side to take the serve on. This also applies in doubles with the receiving pair deciding who receives the serve. However, the pair cannot change positions.
Day 1
We started the day with a staff briefing (always important to attend so everyone knows what is going on). As the briefing went on and the competition start time drew closer, you could feel the excitement rising and the anticipation building! As the clock struck 09:00, the first matches got underway. The courts came to life, buzzing with 100’s of competitors taking their first serves and spectators eager to support!
With 35 courts, there was some flexibility to move matches around when games ran over. This was the case with the last match of the day, which didn’t finish until 9pm! At the end of the day competitors, coaches and spectators were invited to join in with a hog roast on the fields. It was a lovely evening for the everyone to enjoy and for the competitors to unwind from a long day of play!
Day 2
Yet more sunshine came on day 2. Competitors started to return for the second day of competition, eager to see how they had done so far and what position they were in. The points were up and ready for schools to see as they arrived. As the day progressed, the teams started to level out and the competition was really starting to ramp up! The final matches were some of the longest matches from the weekend.
After a very long two days, the championships started to come to an end. The medal ceremonies took place when each age group had finished. We awarded teams who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd with medals, and a trophy to the schools winning the virtual mixed team competition.
The championships was a huge success, with many schools taking part for the first time. We cannot wait to host the 2021 championships – watch this space for the date and venue!
WINNERS
The full list of results are available to view on the LTA website here.
The winning schools from the 2019 championships were:
A quote from a winning school:
South Lee School. As a small independent prep school, with a huge love of Sport, winning two national tennis titles in the U11 Girls B and U11 Boys A events in our first year of entering, was an outstanding achievement for us. Six children represented the school in total, with two boys playing in the U13 B event, finishing in a very credible 7th position. The growth of tennis in our school has been helped hugely by the recruitment of David Hall, a highly experienced Level 5 coach, who worked really hard with the children. The children were very well prepared and went into the competition, under David’s guidance, with a really positive mindset. David commented at the end of the event “the pupils were superb all weekend and were a real credit to the school. Their attitude and performances were first class and they should be very proud”. We agree!