On Saturday 25 November 2023, the St Peter’s College Drive Tennis squad embarked on the journey to Brisbane to compete in the Gallipoli Cup, a five-day tournament. This is an invitation only tournament of the best school teams across Australia. Having won the 2023 South Australian Adelaide Schools (SAAS) competition in Term 1, we qualified in the 2023 Gallipoli Cup, a tournament to test our physical, mental, and emotional tennis skills against the best tennis schools across Australia.
Our boys competed exceptionally hard over the five days of the tournament, playing a total of six teams. At the completion of the tournament, we finished a very respectable 8th, having come 4th in our pool. The level of tennis that the boys exhibited across the whole tournament was amazing to see, as each boy at individual times rose to the occasion against much higher ranked opponents. A particularly special moment was when the fate of the rubber came down to the final doubles of the day, to which every single boy from the team was out on the court screaming their hearts out to get the two boys over the line. We ended up winning this tie due to the great heart and immensely high level of tennis shown by every boy.
The boys should be commended on sustaining their exceptionally high level of tennis throughout the whole tournament despite at times experiencing tough losses to high quality opponents and fighting for every single point no matter the score line.
Overall, this was an amazing experience for each drive player which will stay with everyone for a long time. It has also been an invaluable experience for the boys to increase their tennis ability and IQ. A special mention must also go to Mr Perry and Mr Papazoglou who have put immeasurable time and effort into making this experience as great as it was.
Seb Birdseye
2023 Captain of Tennis
