Tennis is all about numbers – ask the tireless Launceston International organisers.
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Not the 40-love or two sets to one kind. But like two – the number of days it takes to place signage, scoreboards, coolers, bins and cameras.
Try 6,500 tennis balls it takes to wear out over the eight-day tournament.
Or the 150 clean white towels – rewashed, of course, every day – that wipes the sweat of the brow of players.
How about the six chauffeur-driven player cars. Or five industrial-like portable offices officials spend countless hours working inside.
Then there’s the 22 sunshade umbrellas, dotted around Launceston’s courts.
Perhaps craziest of all is the 400 metres of black covers that take most of a day to drape the courts’ perimeters.
Tournament director Nicky Ristrom is run off her feet just thinking about it.
But in her first year on the job, the Launceston tennis enthusiast wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’m absolutely loving it,” she smiles.
“It can be incredibly stressful sometimes, but we have a really good team working together to get it done.”