With apologies to Bernie Bennett of Yellowknife, Jerry Wald is probably the best men's singles tennis player in the NWT right now.
The Fort Smith resident added another title to his trophy case, that being the men's singles crown at the NWT Open in Yellowknife on July 29. He defeated Brooke Harker of Yellowknife in the final in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0.
“Not bad for an old guy,” he joked. “You play a lot of these young guys in Yellowknife and it's good because there's a lot of good players here and they're fun to play against.”
Even though Wald won in straight sets, he said the match against Harker was a lot closer than the score would indicate.
“He played a lot of good shots,” he said. “He has a great serve, he has a great touch and it was a case of me just trying to outlast him and it seemed to work. We moved each other around the court a lot and it was a fun match.”
Something Wald notices a lot about the players from Yellowknife is their use of the touch shots and he said that's probably from playing other racquet sports.
“There's a lot of racquetball and squash players here and it's a big part of their game,” he said. “It's really good to see them come out and it makes for a great mix of people.”
Wald had a chance to make it two wins on the weekend as he teamed up with Dennis Bevington to take on the duo of Leo Jourard and Nikola Jovic of Yellowknife in the men's doubles final. It wasn't meant to be as Jourard and Jovic managed to run away winners in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.
Bevington said it was good to get as far as they did but they would have liked to go one match better and get the win.
The strategy seemed to be keeping the ball away from Jourard as often as possible and forcing Jovic to make the shots but Bevington said that didn't always work.
“Leo's so fast so you can try and keep it away from him but he always seems to be around the ball,” he said. “He's the club pro in Yellowknife and a real good player. He showed us a lot of good tennis in that match.”
Bevington and Wald will be heading to the Canada 55-Plus Games later this month, which will be happening in Saint John, N.B., to play in the 55 and over men's doubles division only because Wald hasn't turned 65 yet to allow them to play in the division below.
He said playing in Yellowknife was a good chance to warm up for that.
“We played together in doubles at the Fort Smith Open and we did a bit better there,” he said. “We're looking forward to it.
Bevington and his wife, Joan, will be playing in the 65 and over mixed doubles division at the Games.