Vice-President of the Guyana Tennis Association (GTA), Cristy Campbell and Junior Coach, Andre Erskine have sounded an urgent call for the installation of floodlights at public tennis courts and rehabilitation works.
The pair spoke at the conclusion of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry summer tennis camp.
The duo explained to Stabroek Sport that even with the influx of new talented players, playing time is limited to “about three hours” without adequate floodlights.
“There is a bright future for tennis at this point, the only challenge we have is (facilities) because there is no public facility in Guyana that has floodlights,” Erskine stated while going on to add that, “we are forced to play in the day only so when the children have school Monday to Friday they are forced to play between 3.30 [pm] and six pm and coming on to Christmas it is going to get dark sooner so we have like up to 5.30 [pm] to play.”
Erskine said “that [installation of floodlights] would definitely be a great improvement for tennis because even the adults cannot play because after work they are exhausted to rush straight home but if the floodlights are there they can do what they have to at home and come out back to play some tennis”.
While there are some courts with floodlights, the tennis fraternity has to seek permission to use them as they are privately owned. Campbell reiterated the sentiments of Erskine, saying “I agree with him 100 percent, in fact 110 percent, most times if you have people coming off work at 4.30 [pm], they only have an hour and a half play time, to meet the maximum level in tennis it requires more than an hour and a half two times a week so the floodlights would help tremendously.”
The GTA executive went on to also express her dissatisfaction with the conditions of the public courts which she described as being in a “deplorable state.”
“We have had problems with facilities over the years, GBTI has been our rescue, we use their facilities at Diamond and Bel Air, we are actually looking forward to an upgrade of the Racquet centre which is in a deplorable state right now, we’re looking forward to an upgrade of the National Park’s public courts which are also in a deplorable state right now so hopefully the relevant authorities can step in and we have some remedy to the situation,” Campbell said.
