The Wichita State men’s and women’s tennis programs announced that they will be hosting three ITA events through their Fall Circuit. 

The first of the three events took place this past weekend from Sept. 26-28, with 14 Shockers taking part in the event. 

Given the limited amount of opportunities for programs not playing tennis in the fall, the ITA formed this Fall Circuit to help give some chances for players in preparation of the spring season.

“The ITA recognized that there were going to be limited competitive opportunities for a lot of schools, some schools are still playing,” WSU women’s tennis coach Colin Foster said. “They recognized that there were going to be a need for competitive opportunities.”

As part of the Fall Circuit, there will be eight to ten events every week, with this upcoming weekend being the second weekend of the 10-week circuit. The event will allow WSU players to play unattached but they will also be allowed to play against other junior players, college players and even adults. 

“That allows our players and school in situations similar to ours that can’t play official competition, they can go play these competitions unattached. It’s a great opportunity for them to have tournaments to train for really. That’s how you get better, is you get out and compete,” Foster said.

For Foster, he feels that being able to have the players in these events will be a great opportunity and put the things they have been practicing into action.

“We were going to be missing those opportunities to continue developing and building confidence with wins and exposing some areas to get better with challenges, and competition does a great job to build those things,” Foster said. “They’re great to continue making progress in our development.”

One of major things that Foster feels some of his players can take away from these events are how they can improve and put certain things that they may be practicing into action.

“It just gives them an opportunity to build confidence and see that I’m getting better,” Foster said. “But it also kind of gives them that wake up call that I’ve got to get back to work and double-down how my practice is, attention to detail, effort, whatever it is that needs addressing. Competition and tournaments really expose some of those things and also reward the things they’re doing well.”

The event this weekend will be open to the public, and necessary health regulations must be followed including the wearing of masks and following social distancing guidelines. The events will be hosted at the Coleman Tennis Club and the Heskett Center and will be free of charge. 

The second ITA event will be from Oct. 24-26 while the final one will take place from Nov. 7-9 with both events still open for registration.