Thurles man John to blog his way to tennis’ big clay events

One of the driving forces behind the creation of a tennis Centre of Excellence at LIT Tipperary is to take to the campervan this week and follow the European clay court season from Madrid, to Italy, to Lyon and Roland Garros.

Thurles man John McNally, whose dream to create a tennis Centre of Excellence in The Cathedral Town is getting ever closer, will head off for Madrid this week and will then follow the tour, culminating with the famous Roland Garros in France. And, along the way, he will be creating regular blogs and uploading video of his experiences on tipperarylive.ie so that viewers can share the experience also.

“This is something I have been wanting to do for many years and the goal will be to bring a flavour of what happens on tour to those who are interested in tennis. I will be talking to all sorts of people, from umpires, to lines people, to players and officials, not to mention supporters who just go along for the tennis. It will be very interesting and hopefully people will follow the thread and enjoy it,” John told the Tipperary Star this week.

“Johnny Mc Goes on Tour” is the tagline for John's expedition which will last for four weeks and will see him motoring around Europe in his campervan to attend the big summer clay tennis spectaculars. So, while the big players will be featured on TV, John will also get to see the many who never reach the spotlight, and he will be bringing their stories to the blog as well.
Back home, the interest in tennis is growing all the time and the Thurles proposal, which has the backing of LIT Tipperary, Tipperary County Council, Tennis Ireland and of course Thurles Tennis Club, is in the pipeline for sports capital funding having submitted all the paperwork in recent months. The funding comes in two different strands - (1) for planning and procurement and (2) for the actual development of the facilities. The Thurles project is at phase 1 right now.

“We have a huge amount of work undertaken already on this project, lining up all the various sides and ensuring that our application is lodged. We are hoping to have indoor and outdoor courts with a retractable wall and permanent roof which means that tennis can be played at all times of the year, no matter what the weather. It all ties in with the Masterplan for the LIT campus and we are very excited to be working in conjunction with all of the stakeholders in relation to this project,” John said.

The multi-million Euro development would finally give a permanent home to Thurles Tennis Club, which has been operating, more or less out of John and his wife Mary-Rose's home just outside Thurles at Ardbawn, Leugh.

John, who is a very highly regarded tennis coach, has spent the last few days preparing for his month long trip which he hopes will be the trip of a lifetime. But, he is also hoping that his blog will generate plenty of interest and bring to the tennis loving public, a unique snapshot of what goes on when following the tour. It promises to be a really insightful blog and can be viewed on tipperarylive.ie once tour commences.

So, don't forget to log on and check it all out.