If you play it, they will come.
That was the case Saturday afternoon at Hunting Hills Country Club, where the Southwest County tennis facility was looking to become part of the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s largest tennis tournament.
Hunting Hills Tennis Director John Barker had already put in the application to Guinness and had all the technical requirements in place to satisfy the Guinness officials for inclusion in their world-famous book.
“I applied last October,” Barker said Saturday as the tournament played out on the eight Hunting Hills courts. “We have to have video proof, photo evidence of the entire event and proof that we play out to the finish. We also had eight stewards (one for each court) monitoring all the play and recording the results.”
The event was the brainchild of Barker.
“As a tennis pro, I’d thought about it for a long time,” Barker noted. “I’ve always thought it would be neat to try to break a world record. This was an open division tournament where players of all ages and abilities could participate. It helps to promote the game of tennis.”
Saturday’s $20 registration fee per player benefitted The American Cancer Society.
The old record was 256 players, but Saturday’s event topped that with cushion to spare. 284 players, ages 4 to 93, were issued numbered arm bracelets before the actual competition began shortly after 1 o’clock.
It would be hard to argue that this was a rapid-fire tournament. These were one-point matches, where a flip of the coin or racket decided which player would serve, with the winner of that point moving on to the next round.
By 2:45 the field of 284 had been narrowed to eight players who battled it out in quick fashion through the quarterfinals and semifinals before North Cross High School tennis player Michael Fleming was the last man standing.
Now, the documentation goes to Guinness where Barker expects the official confirmation to be announced in 10-12 weeks.
Bill Turner
