Southampton Cups Day evolves to Cups Week due to Covid-19

The Southampton Tennis Club (STC) usually wraps up their season with their club championship, Cups Day. It’s a month-long round robin where members play in over 40 different categories. The championship match for each category is played on a single day at the club’s primary location on Lake Street. But the finals and awards presentation usually attract a crowd of several hundred people. Because of COVID-19, this simply wasn’t manageable nor responsible this year.

                                           Tennis fans gathered to watch the annual ‘Cups Week’

However, when the province entered Stage 3 of the provincial reopening in July, the rules allowed for the sharing of tennis balls as well as larger group activities. Conditions were ripe to proceed with a pandemic-friendly version of the tournament. It evolved from Cups Day into Cups Week.

Over the course of a week, all the finals were played across the club’s three facilities instead of on a single day at their main facility. From August 23-29, more than half of the club’s 40+ tennis categories were played. Instead of convening their annual awards celebration, trophies were presented to the participants immediately following each match.

For larger views, Click on Images

Spreading out the final matches across all their locations meant they could maintain social distancing. The club also used an army of volunteers to hand out masks in keeping with the provincial guidelines.

The STC would like to thank the players for putting on a great show, the collective Cups team for adapting the tournament to our current environment in record time, and the spectators who donned their masks to keep other members safe.

For more information about the Southampton Tennis Club and the complete Cups Week results, visit www.southamptontennisclub.ca.