Riverside tennis veteran Max Byrne has made a few glorious returns in his time.
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But perhaps none as glorious as when he returns to Florida in October for the ITF super seniors world championships, where he will captain Australia’s mens 85 cup team.
A stalwart of Riverside Tennis Club, the 84-year-old has missed only a handful of world championships since appearing at his first super seniors event in Florida about two decades ago.
The grandfather-of-six said he was looking forward to taking on the world’s best at a freshly-built 100-court complex in Lake Nona.
“My first trip was to West Palm Beach in Florida so it’s nice to go back - I don’t know if this will be my last one but you never know, it depends where the next one is,” Byrne said.
“I’ve only been out a couple of years; when my wife Val was sick, and I didn’t play last year because I had granddaughters having two 21st birthdays and an 18th and they were when the tournaments were on.
“You had to play at least two tournaments to get in the Australian team so I couldn’t fit them in.
“I had to (give it a miss) in that case - particularly for 21st birthdays, they don’t come every year do they?”
Since taking up the game as a teenager, Byrne has won singles and doubles world masters events, regularly captained national super seniors teams and coached hundreds of young Tasmanians.
Only a back injury which kept him out of the game between 1984 and 1995 has ever kept him off the court.
“I started seriously when I was 19.
“I used to play football and cricket and I had to decide what I was going to do, and a couple of my mates decided to play tennis non-stop.
“I didn’t get coached until I was 20 and I’ve been paying non-stop since then except for injury.
“With the injuries I’ve had, if I hadn’t have played tennis and been fit I probably wouldn’t be here, so it’s been good for me to keep fit in that respect.”
This year’s super seniors championships will feature an 85-plus men’s division for the first time, with at least six teams confirmed to take part in the event.
Byrne said his four-strong side had as good a chance as any to take out the teams event, while the singles event was also up for grabs.
“It’s an honour to be captain, particularly seeing it’s our first year at 85, so someone must like me perhaps.
“Probably the US would be favourites but I reckon we’d be number two.
“We’ve got four even players whereas most of the other countries haven’t got that, some of the others only have one or two good players so we’ve got a good team if we’re good enough at the time.
“It’s pretty even (in the singles), there’s probably about six of us who have a chance of winning it but it just depends how much practice I can get and how fit I can keep in the meantime.”
The ITF super seniors world championships teams event will take place at United States Tennis Association’s new national campus between October 8 and 13.
The singles event will follow from October 14 to 21.
Super seniors has four age divisions for women aged between 65 and 80-plus, and five divisions for men aged between 65 and 85-plus.