A 'fantastic' performance for Wimmera representative players at 2020 Inter-regional Country Championships at Warrnambool

Regional team events co-ordinator Sandra Casey said the highlight of the weekend was how well the team supported one another thought the event.

"It was fantastic," she said.

"All the players performed to the best of their ability.

"Everyone was really competitive and it was a really great atmosphere.

"Our juniors were well supported by the seniors and vice versa."

The tournament had 284 players from nine country regions compete in team and individual competitions.

"There was more players entered this year than last year," Mrs Casey said.

"COVID-19 restrictions were managed really well by the organisers.

"We were even invited by Tennis Australia - I was pretty impressed with how involved they were."

Mrs Casey said she believed Tennis Australia were "really valuing" regional and country events.

"Throughout the year that's all that could happen," she said.

"We were the first to get our competitions back going. There are some competitions in Melbourne who have said they wont be getting back onto the courts until April.

"We've been really fortunate that our tennis has been able to keep going which leads into these kind of regional events being able to be put on."

Mrs Casey said all the players impressed her with their competitiveness, mindset and resilience throughout the event, despite the difficulties of the past 12 months.

"Outside of the first lockdown we had tennis courts have been open for use during restrictions," she said.

"Some of the players that have taken advantage of the tennis courts still in use were able to make the teams.

"They were able to continue coaching."

Mrs Casey said she had seen a shift in players both on and off the course since coach Jeremy Quast had arrived in the Wimmera.

"During 2020, Jeremy was able to coach players in school hours not just school hours," he said.

"Term three for him was fabulous and fabulous for the kids because they were schooling at home and could get some extra tennis coaching in.

"We're now seeing the results of now seeing the results of having a coach in the region."

Mrs Casey said a number of people commented to her about the behaviour of the junior players.

"A lot of that I think comes from when your sport is taken away from you, you value it even more," she said.

"But you couldn't get much better feedback than people impressed with our players right across the weekend."