TENNIS coach Steve Mowle reckons the pendulum is starting to swing back with playing numbers on the rise.
The 45-year-old is head coach at Matchpoint Tennis, Kirrawee.
"We have 200 juniors here in the program who play and train on the synthetic courts," Mowle said.
Mowle said over the past year he had noticed a resurgence in the sport in the Sutherland Shire.
"I have been coaching here for 16 years and for almost 30 years overall," Mowle said.
"I would say in the last 12 months there has been renewed interest and increasing numbers playing tennis."
Mowle, who grew up in the Sutherland Shire, played in elite junior competitions and one of his doubles partners was Grand Slam winner, Todd Woodbridge.
Woodbridge grew up in Woolooware and enjoyed many years of success on the professional tour.
Woodbridge and his former successful doubles partner Mark Woodforde were inducted into Tennis Australia's Hall of Fame in 2010.
Mowle said the reduction in the number of private tennis courts had helped players return to public run courts.
Mowle said he remembered growing up and seeing association, private and public courts full of players in the days tennis was booming.
Then he said there was a drift away from the game and numbers declined.
Mowle said when Australia had high-profile players doing well on the men's and women's professional circuit the interest in tennis spiked.
He also feels juniors have a wide choice of sports and activities to choose from these days.
"Kids have more sports to choose now from when people our age group were growing up," Mowle said.
He said he was pleased to see an upswing in player numbers.
"Together with the three other coaches at Matchpoint Tennis there are a good crop of players coming through," Mowle said.
He said he believed in encouraging the juniors to develop tennis skills at their own pace in a relaxed environment.
He said Zac Chapman, Natasha Pochleitner, Luke Bevan and Cameron McGlynn were a promising quartet.
Surf fundraiser
The 44th annual 2015 Brooks PAYCE Sutherland 2 Surf event held on Sunday is about making a difference, raising valuable funds for surf lifesaving at Wanda and other charities.(Click on link to see a photo gallery)
Organisers report $25,248 was raised for charities via the Everyday Hero Fundraiser on the S2S website and more than $100,000 for the Love Mercy Foundation.
Fitness First also initiated a fundraiser through their centres in connection with the S2S event for the Make a Wish Foundation.
