For thousands of New Zealanders, Valentines weekend roses came in the form of fluffy yellow balls.
More than 150 tennis clubs around the country participated in the Come Play! Tennis Open Day, on the weekend 14 -15 February.
Everyone who has ever lifted a tennis racquet – or has ever wanted to – was welcome to come along and have a hit.
And Kiwis everywhere responded in fine form!
At Thorndon Tennis Club in Wellington, 400 people came along at various times to watch and encourage coach Andy Wheeler who was attempting the break the world record for the highest number of consecutive tennis lessons, starting at 7am on Saturday 14 February, and going through the night.
In the end, Andy was on court for 30 hours! Even the video cameraman fell asleep at his tripod, sometime around 4am. Fortunately, at the time, Andy had two top tennis players belting balls back at him – and this, he said, helped keep him awake.
Auckland’s Herne Bay Club turned the event into a Gala Day, with celebrity doubles matches featuring Stacey Jones, NZ kiwi league legend, James McOnie from The Crowd Goes Wild, Brendan Bell - current club champion, Dame Susan Devoy and Olivia Isbey- '08 U14 NZ runner up, member of junior team to tour China last year -
and commentated by former world-ranked NZ tennis player TV One commentator David Mustard. The tennis courts were also used for other events, such as tug o’ wars!
Wellington Tennis Club managed to entice runners away from the Round the Bays run, to have a quick hit on their courts!
For Manurewa Tennis Club, the Come Play! Open Day coincided with their 100th anniversary.
All participating clubs reported a great influx of potential new members on the day, with many family groups signing up as members right away.
The Come Play! Tennis Open Day was a nationwide initiative from Tennis New Zealand, with help from the six regional tennis associations, and a team of tennis Regional Development Managers.
The event was supported by Youthtown, HEAD, Prince, Slazenger, Tiger Turf and Wilson.
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