The season is in full swing and Oceanside’s two nationally ranked players are back from their run at the Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club’s 34th Indoor Masters Tennis Championships.
In the mix April 15-24 were Racquet Man Gordon Verge and Qualicum Beach’s Margit Aardmaa.
“It was a big one,” Verge said of the annual event, a 10 day Level Four tournament featuring 366 players aged 30-80 in age groups of five year increments.
The tournament is sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the governing body of tennis based in London England, and also by Tennis Canada and Tennis B.C.
Aardmaa, coming off a fantastic 2010, is playing her first year of the Women’s 40-44 group was seeded number one in the tournament in singles, but was upset by No. 4 seed Andrea McDonald from Vancouver in the semifinals.
In doubles, Margit played down in the 35s with her partner from last year Shiera Stuart from Vancouver.
Seeded No. 1 again in the doubles, they were upset by the No. 4 seeded pair of Sherry Buller andTeresa Dobson-Wahl from Vancouver, 2-6, 7-6 {3} and 6-1 in the finals.
Aardmaa is ranked No. 1 in singles and doubles in B.C. and Canada and currently sits in 37th position in the world in her age group in singles.
Also experiencing a great 2010 season was Parksville’s Gordon Verge.
Canadian Doubles Champion with partner Bob Seeley from Vancouver, the longtime local was selected for the sixth straight year to represent Canada at the World Team and Individual Championships in Antalya, Turkey as captain of his age group team.
Last Thursday Verge received a letter from Tennis Canada informing him he has once again been selected to be a member of the Canadian travelling to Turkey in October.
At the tournament in Vancouver, the first of the year, the Parksville tennis instructor, who turns 77 this year, was crowned singles and doubles champion in his age group (Men’s 75-79).
Currently ranked No. 2 in doubles and No. 1 in singles in both Canada and B.C. and 53rd in the world in singles, Verge won the singles championship in Vancouver by defeating his doubles partner Bob Seeley, “in a very tough match” by scores of 7-5, 7-5.
The two then teamed up to beat the tandem of Alan Armour and Lewis Hayashi, 6-2, 6-1.
Next up for the Oceanside residents will be the provincials in Vancouver in June.