THE Surry District Tennis Association will see some key changes ahead of its 2023-24 season start on October 21.

Decided at the recent Annual General Meeting the association will merge its two top grades, A grade and A reserve, to boost number and competition across the higher levels of its competition.

With numbers proving difficult in grassroots tennis, president Phil Graham said they must keep adapting in order to maintain a solid competition.

“We’ve had a few teams who have been struggling for numbers so we’ve decided to merge the two top grades which will definitely be something different,” he said.

“We want our best teams at the top and it’s going to push some people into that mix so it will hopefully be a good challenge.

“At the end of the season the top grade will split into two divisions and play out their finals series separately.”

Graham said the association has increasingly faced participation issues at its senior level which comes down to a mixture of factors.

“We had Drumborg drop out of the competition last year which means one less club across the grades and basketball in summer has always hurt our participation a bit,” Graham said.

“Understandably kids choose basketball, and it means that it’s hard for them to commit to tennis once they get too old for the juniors grade.

“We also don’t have any universities here so after juniors people tend to leave town and we just don’t have the people to draw from.

“There is also the flow on from Tennis Victoria and we need them focussed on grassroots as well because all of that filters down.”

While numbers across the top grades haven’t been what the association would like, the junior competition continues to thrive with approximately eight teams signed up against to play.

“The juniors have been strong for a few years, particularly in Heywood, so we want to try and get them to stay,” Graham said.

“It should be a good season and a few changes will hopefully help with the competition.”