Tennis in Lloydminster is growing thanks to the addition of two new tennis courts. This is the first full season the Lloydminster Tennis Association is playing with additional courts at Bud Miller.
The courts were constructed last year and have been fully taken advantage of this season. President of LTA Rod Shopland says before the two new courts they were maxed out with what they could do and now the game will be able to grow.
“It was a real bonus to us because now we’re able to run our tennis program and still have room for public usage on those courts. It was always a conflict in the spring of the year when we were running our lessons prior to this.”
This year, the LTA has run 10 events, which is the most they have ever run. This includes their rookie tournaments and the Border City tournament in July. The association completed their Paul Douglas 27 tournament last weekend, which saw the most players participating with 53 players.
Aside from the new tennis courts, the association will be upgrading their lighting on the courts with LED lights. Shopland says they expect the light to arrive and be installed next week.
“We couldn’t put LED on one side with the sodium vapour on the other side because they work against each other. It all has to be sodium vapour or it all has to be LED and it was far more expensive to put sodium vapour lights on the new courts because you have to add more poles.”
The association will be holding their final tournament of the season in mid-September. The team tournament will include various teams of four with players of different skill levels on each.
“You’re always playing against the same level of players. We’ll number them one to four in skill and one and two will play against one and two from the other team. It’s very even and very fun.”