Historic victory: The University of Sydney triumphs in the inaugural University Tennis League

The University of Sydney has emerged victorious in a thrilling final against The University of Queensland, ending the pilot season for the new University Tennis League (UTL).

UTL Gold Medal Match: The University of Sydney 4 def The University of Queensland 3

With the support of Tennis Australia, the UTL provided an opportunity for university students across Australia to not only play competitive tennis but the chance to represent their university alongside their fellow students (men and women) in a team environment. With the league being conducted under the recently adopted Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) system, all matches contributed to progressing player rankings.

There was a strong rivalry between the universities as they fought to qualify for the national finals series on 21-22 August in Melbourne, with the following ten universities competing for the title in the pilot season:

• The University of Adelaide (AU)
• Australian National University (ANU)
• Deakin University (DEAK)
• Macquarie University (MQU)
• RMIT University (RMIT)
• Swinburne University of Technology (SUT)
• The University of Sydney (USYD)
• The University of Queensland (UQ)
• The University of Western Australia (UWA)
• Western Sydney University (WS)

Image credit: Sports Imagery AU

The league’s pilot season incorporated three rounds of regional qualifiers setting the stage for an exhilarating finals series, with the top university in each qualifier progressing to the finals in Melbourne. The four teams to progress to the finals series were: UQ (North), USYD (East), DEAK (South) and UWA (South-West).

In the climactic finals, held over two days at Tennis World Albert Park in Melbourne, all four teams played strong tennis in a series of intense singles and doubles matches, where USYD and UQ were able to defeat UWA and DEAK respectively in their semi-final matches.

Day two proved to be a thriller, with the outcome of the gold medal match decided by the final mixed doubles rubber, with USYD winning the men’s singles and doubles rubbers and UQ winning the women’s rubbers to make it 3-3 going into the mixed doubles match.

USYD triumphed against a strong UQ team, winning the tiebreaker 10-8 and earning themselves the gold medal winning 4-3.

Image credit: Bianca Buckley

Mark Sinderberry, Chief Executive Officer of UniSport Australia, was impressed with the standard of tennis. “It was great to see such a high level of tennis in the league for its first year, where not only did the gold medal match come down to the mixed doubles rubber, but that match itself was so close that it came down to a major tiebreaker.”

“It was incredible to witness the camaraderie between the university students who were cheering each other on at every point, and their commitment to represent their university was evident with the competition being so close between the teams in the finals series.”

Despite UQ’s strong performances from players like Anastasia Polach (Master’s Thesis) and Chyi Lee (Bachelor of Health Science (Nutrition)), the final outcome tilted in favour of USYD with 19-year-old Charlie Pade (Project Management) winning both his singles and mixed doubles to secure the win for his team.

Image credit: Sports Imagery AU

Joel Goodwin, Competitive Play Manager – National for Tennis Australia, said “It was exciting to see the UTL showcase exceptional talent featuring the calibre of competitive players such as Anastasia Polach (previously ranked 206 in singles) and Max Weir (a previous Division 1 college player in the US and Commerce student at UWA). We look forward to seeing more competitive tennis opportunities through the University Tennis League for universities to showcase their tennis talent.”

The focus will shift to the future of the league with plans underway to expand the competition in the coming seasons, with the aim of including more universities and enhancing the overall structure of the league.

The University Tennis League will return in 2025.

Image credit: Bianca Buckley