The weekend of 27 and 28 September, LE TIR (Paris, France) was honored to host a CTC 35+/45+ senior tournament on its site, gathering four legendary clubs:
- The Tennis Club de Genève, which was represented by 4 wonderful players known for their Swiss precision, perfect timing, and flawless groundstrokes;
- The Circolo de Tennis Bologna, which perfectly incarnated the impeccable Italian style on and off the court;
- The I. Cesky Lawn-Tenis Klub Praha, which is very famous for its rich tennis history and players’ magical touch;
- LE TIR, whose teammates are well known for their warm hospitality, and elegance when it is about to let their guests win a semi-final.
When you put four clubs together that are at least one hundred years old, you get much more than four centuries of history in one room. They have survived changing eras, wooden racquets, white balls, and decades of endless debate over whether a ball was in or out! And looking at the age categories of this CTC senior 35+/45+ tournament, the players who took part of it are living proof that tennis, like fine wine, only gets better with time. Their knees might make louder noises during the warm-up but the desire to win that cross-court winner is as sharp as it was when they were eighteen.
Thus, the semi-finals, final and placement matches showed the absolute best of what Centenary Tennis Clubs are all about: fierce, high-level competition on the court right away followed by fun conversations, laughs and smiles.
The results of this fantastic tennis journey are as follows: Geneva beat Bologna 6–2 in the first semi-final (one match was not played), and Prague defeated LE TIR 5–4 in the second semi-final. Geneva went on to beat Prague 6–2 in the final.
But whatever the scores on the board turned out to be, this weekend was a victory for friendship, sportsmanship, and the players’ shared passion for tennis. Many thanks to the CTC Council and LE TIR volunteers that made this sporting event possible.
