Big field flocks to town for Albany Open doubles event

The annual Albany Open tennis tournament has attracted 80 players from across the region for the two-day event at Emu Point Tennis Club.

Players from Perth, Merredin, Hyden, Kojonup, Katanning and Albany will hit the courts this weekend, with numbers marginally down on last year.

The A-grade and B-grade women’s and men’s doubles will be played on Saturday, while mixed doubles in both grades will be contested on Sunday.

Round-robin games will be played, from 25 minutes to 50 minutes in duration, with overall winners determined by points gained during the day.

Tournament co-ordinator Richard Piggott said the event was shaping up to be a good one.

“We are expecting a good standard of country tennis across both A and B-grades,” Piggott said.

“The tournament host is Emu Point and we all pitch in as a club, which in turn bonds us as a club.

We can expect to see some very good players, such as women’s doubles pair of Alex Riggall and Clare King, who have won numerous competitions including the previous two or three at Emu Point.”

Declan Mountford and Michael Offerman claimed the men’s A-grade doubles title last year, Riggall and King are the defending champions in the women’s A-grade competition, and Riggall and Nathan Watson teamed up to win the mixed A-grade doubles last year.