Shirley Trimble believes everything is in place for Kilkenny County & City Lawn Tennis Club to reopen once the current Covid-19 restrictions are uplifted.
Speaking to KCLR’s Saturday Scoreline, Trimble was upbeat about the possibility of tennis returning at a local level in the coming weeks and months.
“We have everything set up to get going again,” said Trimble.
“We have an online booking system up so that there is social distancing in place. But the sport lends to social distancing too so hopefully we’ll be back soon. At the moment, we’re on pause unfortunately.”
The Kilkenny County & City Lawn Tennis clubwoman also gave some good tips as to who will come out on top in the women’s side of the draw for the upcoming Australian Open.
“In terms of the women, Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka, and the world number one Ashleigh Barty are the favourites. That will be an amazing competition. The women’s game has been so competitive over the last few years.”
However, Trimble did have a frank warning for the competitors, saying that “you can never write off Serena Williams.”
Trimble also thinks that there are three clear favourites on the men’s side.
“You’d have to be looking at Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and 2020 US Open winner Dominic Thiem.
“Your money would have to be on Djokovic who has won 8 times in Australia including the last two years,” predicted Trimble.
Whoever comes out on top in the first Grand Slam of the year, we can all echo the Kilkenny woman’s sentiment after a difficult 2020 for tennis and an equally tough build-up to the Australian Open.
“It’s great to see tennis back on Monday in Melbourne. It really keeps us tennis fans going.”
Shirley kept us up to date on Scoreline over the course of the tournament, and you can listen back to all the interviews below:
