A tennis tournament in the West Highlands with a history of producing high profile champions has been cancelled.
The Atlantis Community Leisure Centre in Oban was due to be a hive of activity from next Friday for what would have been the 50th anniversary of the revival of the West Highland Championships, which is a tournament with strong links to America.
However, rising Covid cases in Oban has impacted on staff numbers at partners Atlantis Leisure, prompting organisers of the tennis competition to pull the plug on this year’s event.
Renowned Davis Cup team captain David Lloyd, top coach Judy Murray, current GB National Tennis Academy lead performance coach Colin Fleming, and Tennis Scotland chief executive Blane Dodds, have all been winners in Oban.
American links enhanced popular competition
Over the last 20 years, the competition has also welcomed a group of players from across the Atlantic thanks to a chance phone call with a coach of John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels, Texas.
Whilst on their travels to attend Wimbledon as spectators in 2001, coach Charles Honey was keen for the squad to play some competitive tennis in the UK.
As the only tournament running in Britain during the Wimbledon fortnight, Charles was put in contact with long-term organiser of the West Highland Championships, Mary McLean.
This commenced a long friendship between the Texas club and Oban, which has seen 16 young American players compete in the competition each year, having been won over by the beauty of Oban and the tennis experience which provides a platform for them to play against top ranked players in Scotland.
Although there was to be no US players competing this year due to travel restrictions, McLean, who is a driving force behind a competition often labelled as a “bucket list” event for players across the globe.
As plans were getting into the final stages, the tennis team in Oban were hit by bombshell news last week.
Staff levels at Atlantis struck by rising Covid numbers
Atlantis Leisure’s statement issued last Tuesday said: “Atlantis Leisure will close today at 1.30pm for a period of 10 days this is due to the government’s self-isolation requirements, reducing the available staff beyond what is needed to operate the centre sensibly and safely.
“The board of directors and management team’s decision to close is a cautious approach and is taken to ensure we protect our community by acting quickly and responsibly.
“Atlantis Leisure will close at 1.30pm on Tuesday, 22nd of June for 10 days. Further updates will be made via our social media channels and website.”
McLean said the only option was to put the tournament off.
She explained: “In Oban, there has been a sharp increase in the number of Covid cases. I don’t know all the details but some of the centre staff have had to go into self-isolation.
“We discussed it with committee members and we felt there was no way, practically, that we could keep the tournament going.
“We may have had access to the courts but not to anywhere else. We’re really disappointed, but we didn’t feel that we had any other option.
“Next Friday would have been the start of the main tournament, with boys and girls aged 18 and under. We actually had a very good entry this year.
“The 16 Americans were not coming obviously, but there were still strong numbers for the different events.
“Nick Rosenzweig was our winner in 2018 and 2019 and he was returning as were quite a few others who had competed here. There were also a number of new younger players coming.”
Committee were gearing up for safety-first competition
The Championships were first held in 1922 before ceasing for the Second World War, the West Highland Championships has attracted players from far and wide since the tournament’s return was rallied 50 years ago.
A celebration of the tennis-fest was planned, as much as could be amid Covid restrictions, and McLean felt that even early last week it looked as if it could still have been game on.
She said: “It was our 50th anniversary, which makes it even more disappointing. On Tuesday, we still were all set for going ahead. We knew there would be quite a lot of restrictions such as only so many people in the clubhouse.
“We were going up on Tuesday to sort out the risk assessments and how we would manage the Covid restrictions, but we would still have access to the centre, including the toilets. There would also have been access to a changing room.
“On Monday night, we knew there would be no café facilities, but we felt that we could still offer teas and coffees in the way other places do it. People order and it can be taken outside for example. However, those options have all gone now.
“It is now cancelled and the committee will chat about what the next step is. We will not be able to run it in the summer months because the tennis calendar is such that this coming week is the one in which we have run the competition for many, many years.
“There are other tennis events going on, so it’s not as if we can simply say we will run it in three weeks.”
Programme will still celebrate tournament’s colourful history
One element not shelved, however, is the special programme which is running off the press any day now.
McLean added: “We have produced a 50th anniversary commemorative programme. That looks back at when the tournament started, the players who have been champions in Oban and went on to progress their tennis careers.
“For example, David Lloyd was our first champion. We’ve also had Blane Dodds, who is Tennis Scotland chief executive, as our champion and Judy Murray was also a champion here.
“That is all featured, as well as details of local players and finalists over the years. That is just being printed now and will be sent out.”
