Grange Dyvours tennis club, Stockbridge, will be well to the fore when Tennis Scotland stages its annual awards in Stirling on 28 March.
Not only are Dyvours with its grass, artificial and most recently indoor facilities up for “club of the year” two of its members – Henry Macdonald and Robbie Paul – are among the candidates to be “Young Person of the Year.”
On the coaching front the East are well represented with Jack Hardie, head coach at Thistle LTC since 2018, contesting the Performance award from Scott Macaulay (Stirling University) and Calum LLoyd (Falkirk).
Coach of the year nominations include Dalgety Bay’s Gary Whitton.
St Serfs (Goldenacre) team member Neil Harden is recognised for his tournament organisation in the Official of the year category while East president Viki Mendelsson could become Volunteer of the year.
The East Lothian Open and East of Scotland Open are both listed for Tournament of the year and Edinburgh are on the short list for University of the year.
Meanwhile, Tennis Scotland Chief Executive Blane Dodds has given an upbeat assessment of the sport from grassroots to international standard in his annual “State of the Nation” address.
Dodds, former Scottish No 2 male player, makes special mention of up-and-coming Edinburgh pro, Jacob Fearnley, and says: “We’ve been able to continue this period of unprecedented growth, reporting record club membership numbers and soaring levels of participation. Some of our headline figures include an overall 11% rise in participation, a 37% surge in the number of adults playing monthly and a 27% increase in female play.
“More people are playing our sport – and they’re playing it more often – which is great to see across the country. This is no doubt helped by the likes of Jacob Fearnley, whose career continues in an impressive upward curve, especially since last year’s Wimbledon Championships.
“After a great run at the Australian Open he played in the Davis Cup for the first time and has much to look forward to in the years ahead. I am sure he will serve as an inspiration to the next generation of Scottish juniors and their coaches alike.
“To meet that demand for tennis we now have 160 park courts completely refurbished around the country while work has begun on another new indoor centre, this time in Dumfries & Galloway.
“It’s also important that we continue to showcase our sport and February saw us host a number of significant international events in Glasgow. Among them, the ATP Challenger Tour event again proved a massive draw, attracting big crowds to Scotstoun all week and in particular on finals day, when it was standing room only for an all-Norwegian affair. We received some very positive feedback from the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) who revealed our spectator numbers vastly exceeded all their expectations.
“Our domestic events are also attracting more attention and it was significant that the Tennis Scotland Open Tour Finals earned investment from BBC Scotland who showed the event live around the UK. Congratulations to our new champions Ewen Lumsden and Mia Wainwright.
“Among the other highlights, it was great to see a big turnout for our 2025 Coaches’ Conference, which saw GB Billie Jean King (tournament) captain Anne Keothavong take part in a Q&A, and impressive sessions from the likes of Ruben Neyens, Kris Soutar, David Wilson and our performance coaches Jonny O’Mara and Toby Smith.”
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