Armidale brother and sister duo Connor and Sahra Dennehy were crowned best in the region at the 70th consecutive Far Northern Tennis Championships in Glen Innes on the weekend.
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The annual tournament served up plenty of competition but numbers were down in the landmark event.
Players turned up from Armidale, Tamworth, Inverell, Casino, Brisbane and Sawtell to play in what is considered one of the biggest local tennis tournaments.
Across the four divisions, changes were made to ensure all events ran on the weekend.
Competition secretary Dianne Morris said the committee were disappointed by the lack of entries for this year but they were able to continue with the competition.
"We just ran a few more round robins in events than we normally do and, because of that, we were able to run 19 out of the 20 events,” she said.
"People played extra events for us to make events a little bit more competitive. The players were very supportive that way.
"They were happy to do that because the entries were down and they weren't going to get as much match play as they normally would have so they were happy they got to play extra events.”
Morris said there was only one hiccup with a storm delaying play on Saturday but matches resumed with the region’s top players putting on a display.
Connor Dennehy took on Tamworth’s Martin Russell in the final of the men’s A division which went down to the wire.
In a thrilling finish, Dennehy won the match and the prizemoney 9-7. Keeping it in the family, Sahra Dennehy won the women’s singles.
"Her event ended up being a round robin,” Morris said.
"She is only a young teenager but she is a top player.
“She has a very impressive ranking for her age.”
Despite the lower numbers, the Glen Innes and District Tennis Association received “only positive feedback” and plan to keep running the championships in the future.
"With everyone's positive feedback we feel like we can go again next year and try to build it up again,” Morris said.
"We offer a more country-style, relaxed tournament where players can come and play with their parents, with their brother or sister and there is just not the pressure involved.
"We still have to maintain our presence but we need to reach out to those regular club players who are not interested in getting their ranking points but are interested in participating in tournaments for the fun of it.
"That is who we have to reach now.”