31 October 2018

October 2018: Back at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar for the ITF Seniors Tournament

 

Just back from the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar in Mallorca, Local Tennis Leagues' Sally Kinnes recounts her experience and salutes the efforts of all our players!

It’s 9am on a beautifully sunny morning and I am looking across the net on a freshly swept clay court at the Rafa Nadal Sports Centre in Mallorca. This is the ITF Seniors tournament and although it is the last week of October, it promises to be another day of 75 degrees under a cloudless sky.

My opponent, a German woman called Susanne, is the number one seed in our age group. In tennis terms that means I am David to her Goliath but knowing you have nothing to lose is surprisingly liberating. 

Begals on claySusanne serves first and it is less of a rocket than I feared. Clay takes the ferocity out of a hard ball just like Paracetamol take the edge off pain. To the surprise of us both, I hit a backhand winner down the line. Great though it felt, it was a lonely winner, and forty minutes later, it is all over, as Susanne (who goes on to win our whole group) chalks up the winner on the clay.  But she is kind enough to tell me that in another ITF tournament, she was beaten 6-0, 6-0 herself. “It was all over in just 37 minutes!”  There is, I remind myself, always someone better than you.  

Depending on your outlook, going to an ITF tournament is a tennis holiday with matches, or a way to play competitive tennis and have a holiday at the same time. Either way, the Rafa Nadal Sports Centre, is a perfect place to do it.  The climate is great, the staff are super-friendly, the facilities are brilliant and if you are very lucky, you will bump into Rafa. What’s not to like?

 All this, combined with the tennis, means these tournaments are outstanding value for money and you would be hard pressed to find a better deal anywhere.(And on trips like this one, where Local Tennis Leagues is on site, we arrange a few extas including a tennis themed quiz-night - see one of the teams below!)

Quiz nightThe standard of the tournament we went on last week was Grade 5, which, broadly speaking, is strong intermediate.  By the end of the week, our party of 19 LTL players won in 14 categories which we think is a pretty impressive result. result. My doubles partner, Olena and I, alas were not among them but of course, it’s the taking part that counts and as Olena told me, her club motto is: “Play tennis – and win in life!” We think that is an excellent idea.

  • Until the end of 4th November, you can get 12% off the next ITF Tournament at the Rafa Nadal Sports Centre by Movitstar which runs from 10-17 March 2019. This means for half board (breakfast & dinner) and tournament entry, it costs just Euros 431.20 per person for two sharing (instead of Euros 490) or Euros 651.20 for a single room (instead of Euros 740). Excludes flights (currently extraordinarily cheap!) From 5th November, the discount will be 5%. This discount is available by emailing or phoning the centre. It is not available online. There is more inormation on the page here.