Words: Ken Bergenthal, YC&AC Tennis Captain
The 2023 tennis season was a busy one at YC&AC, as we estimate approximately 80+ members regularly using the courts. Every activity imaginable could be seen from League, Championships, private lessons, junior lessons, group lessons, singles and doubles practices and lots and lots of fun social tennis.
YC&AC
On March 5, 2023, we held our White Day Wimbledon themed tennis social with scones and butter/jam and tea/coffee! Everyone did their best to dress up in white attire and we played some doubles for a few hours while enjoying the delicious scones that were provided by our F&B!
On September 30, 2023, we held our annual Nations Cup (no rain this time) and formed global regional teams for a fun team doubles competition.
On December 3, 2023, we held our 2nd annual year end tennis party with over 60 attendees. Good food, several games, lots of bingo and prizes from tennis rackets to free lessons and more, and a bit of dancing!
YC&AC Year end tennis party
From end of October the YC&AC Club Championships began featuring Mens Doubles and Mens Singles. In our singles finals Tsutomu Ikenaga outlasted Hideo Asakura in a nail-biter 4 hour match for the Championships! In doubles Tsutomu Ikenaga returned again to team up with Ken Bergenthal for a victory over Kaz Miyamoto and Yusuke Shimizu for the doubles Championship!
Throughout 2023 we ran the tennis Singles League consisting of three divisions covering 3 different levels of play. The Winter and Fall seasons had 19-20 players including one to two ladies and everyone is welcome to join in 2024! Exciting battles throughout all the seasons unfolded on court.
And to finish up our tennis for 2023, we held our Christmas Tennis Social on December 9, 2023 for a fun half day of doubles.
Outside of YC&AC
We had quite a large participation of YC&AC members at the yearly YITC International Doubles competition in May 2023. And likely for the first time ever, the champions for both the mixed doubles and mens doubles were our own YC&AC members. Yukiko and her son Leon triumphed over tough competition from all over Tokyo in the mixed doubles. Our coach Tanikawa-san and Ken Bergenthal upset the previous 8x champions to eventually win the mens doubles.
Our annual YITC vs YC&AC match was held March 3rd as we visited YITC in an attempt to hold on to the Champions cup. We ended up successful in winning once again, thanks to all our participants.
Several of our adult members are avidly participating in Japan Tennis Association tournaments in the veterans division around Japan. Currently Tsutomu Ikegana is ranked #12 in the mens 40s, Hideo Asakura ranked #26 in the mens 45s, and Ken Bergenthal ranked #24 in the mens 55s.
On October 14, 2023, the Singapore Cricket Club visited YC&AC and before their soccer match against YC&AC, we had a friendly tennis tournament which we hope to build upon for future reciprocal visits.
On June 10, 2023 the Morgan Stanley Charity Tennis Tournament was held for the first time since Covid.
The event was hosted by Morgan Stanley and we had YC&AC entered as a team, coming third in the tournament.
We hosted Japan Junior Tennis Tour YC&AC Open events on February 19, July 16, and December 3. 2023 averaging about 40-50 kids joining for each event. Additionally, several of our junior member players have been competing around Japan in many tournaments and progressing further and further in their results!