GTC Top 16 Tournament to serve off at Grand View Hotel courts

The Grassroot Tennis Club (GTC) Top 16 men’s championship will serve off at the Grand View tennis courts this Monday, May 8, and ends Saturday, May 13.

It will be a renaissance and nostalgia of sorts for the Grandview venue, which was host in the 1980s-1990s of regional tournaments, featuring the likes of John Maginley of Antigua and Barbuda.

The tournament should see the top men players in St Vincent and the Grenadines serve and smash it out, to determine the top player in the local tennis arena.

This tournament comes at a time when the sport has been experiencing a severe drought in tournaments since the GTC tennis facility at Murray’s Road was forced to close as a result of actions by owners of the property.

Director of the Grassroot Tennis Club attorney Grant Connell said he is indeed grateful to Tony Sardine and Robert Banfield for allowing the club to use the facility to have this tournament.

Connell disclosed that there will be a closing ceremony, which would also have a fund-raiser, with the proceeds going to the St Benedict’s Day Nursery of Georgetown.

Over the six years of existence, the Grassroot Tennis Club has hosted over 40 events.

According to Connell, “The Grassroot Tennis Club was the only live wire for tennis in St Vincent and the Grenadines for some time”.

He further intimated that not a single tournament was held by the association in the last year and added that the GTC was denied the use of a court at the National Tennis Centre at Villa to continue its well-oiled programme.

Connell proffered, “We have to look beyond petty differences and move on… you either love a sport or you don’t – when I look at Trevor “Sailor” Bailey’s dedication to cycling, I get encouragement; if not for him cycling would be dead”.

The attorney said the GTC has received the support for the tournament from two of its main signage holders in the companies of CK Greaves and Lewis Pharmacy, whom he deemed as “true 100% Vincy grassroot companies”, and members of the private sector who have supported the growth and development of the Grassroot Tennis Club.