Three generations on court

Among the tennis playing families that turned out to last Saturday’s Tennis Cook Islands open day was the Baudinet family who had three generations on court.

June Baudinet along with daughter Tania and granddaughter Tatyana Vakatini had lots of fun on Saturday and were certainly the talk of the day.

June is well known for her work in promoting tennis in the Cook Islands and having her son Brett, daughter Tania and granddaughter Tatyana with her on the court was a treat.

Brett is a national tennis player having represented the country at a number of international events, and has played in the Davis Cup team for the past 10 years. His niece Tatyana seems to be fast following in his footsteps.

Aunty June, as she is called, said she had lost count on when exactly she began playing tennis.

“It could have been when I began crawling,” laughed Aunty June.

“But I have been playing tennis for a long time, from back in the days of the grass courts and wooden racquets in Titikaveka.”

“In fact my grandfather once carved me a racquet out of wood for me and I use to play tennis against the limestone walls of the house.”

“And now look at this state of the art tennis court today’s generation have to play on.”

While Tania claims she’s the failed product – she certainly looked the part on Saturday and enjoyed her return to the courts after nearly seven years of not playing.

But with her mum clearly still passionate about the game and her daughter a budding tennis star Tania appears keen to get back into the sport.