Argentina opens 2022 with a festival of tennis in participation drive
Eighty-five tennis festivals were hosted in parks and multi-sport facilities across Buenos Aires as part of a major tennis participation drive across the Argentine capital in the first two months of the year.
Nine parks and public sports centres across the city brought tennis to the fore as over 1600 children – including 860 boys and 776 girls – took part in a host of workshops lasting 30 minutes per group in January and February.
The initiative was designed to make tennis as visible as possible as a tool for both individual and group learning, exercise and play, not to mention showcase tennis as an accessible sport that can be played virtually anywhere using mini nets, court markers, 21 or 23 inch rackets and mini-red balls.
The workshops involved a range of fun activities to allow youngsters to freely explore the sport, develop their hand-eye coordination and get to grips with the theory of the game.
As part of the wide range of tennis activities in Buenos Aires through the early part of the year, a kids day was held at the second of two consecutive ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments that took place in Tucuman in early February at W25 level. Around 60 children took part in a morning of tennis alongside coaches from the Tucuman Lawn Tennis Club and those involved in the professional event.
Those taking part could be inspired by the fact that the tournament’s eventual winner, Brenda Fruhvirtova, was only a few years older than them. In fact, Fruhvirtova won both tournaments to become the first 14-year-old in ITF history to win back-to-back singles titles in consecutive weeks.
Other inspirational activities initiated by the AAT around the events included a ‘Tennis at the Square’ event in San Miguel De Tucuman involving the Argentine Billie Jean King Cup captain Mercedez Paz and six emerging Argentine professional players Candela Bugnon, Victoria Burstein, Mariana Zottoli, Lucian Blatter, Emilse Ruiz and Sol Faga.
A third event also saw former world No. 28 Paz take part in tennis at Nougues Square at Yerba Buena city, where the city’s mayor also got involved - playing tennis with kids on a mini court.
Cesar Kist, the ITF's Development Officer for South America said: "Congratulations to Asociación Argentina de Tenis (AAT) for taking tennis to where children are; that is, in parks, squares and public spaces. In addition to being able to taste tennis, the project aims to offer the opportunity for children to continue playing tennis in clubs, academies and public courts that are partners of the AAT participation programmes."