Isle of Man professional tennis player Billy Harris competed in the qualifying round for the French Open at Roland Garros.

The 30-year-old former Albany and Castletown member went up against fellow Briton Dan Evans and, unfortunately for Harris, he was on the wrong end of a tight scoreline, losing in straight sets 5/7, 3/6 – Evans coming from 5/2 down in the first set.

Harris is now back in the UK and starts training at the National Training Centre, prior to hopefully playing at Birmingham, Queens Club/Ilkley, Eastbourne and Wimbledon.

Therefore, he has a busy schedule ahead and hopefully some of his matches will be broadcast on TV in the coming weeks.

ALBANY LAWN TENNIS CLUB NEWS

The UK Tour Fast4 tournament was held at two venues recently, with the men competing at Douglas TC and the women at Albany LTC, with all players providing some good, competitive matches.

Albany’s Ava Austerberry finished runners-up in the women’s event, while in the men’s event - played at Kensington Road - the winner was Sean Drewry.

- The club’s committee is looking for members with time to spare who are able to help with a spring clean of the club’s facilities in preparation for the Satellite Games which will be held from June 20-27, with Albany staging the men’s event.

With players visiting from three islands, it would be good to make the club welcoming, provide a choice of food, a rota for serving refreshments and obviously have a lot of members as spectators.

From past games experience, the standard of tennis will be good. If anyone can help in any way, please contact any member of the committee.

- Albany’s Saturday mini coaching is currently on a break for the TT fortnight but will be back to normal June 14.

PAT SHARP