THE Rheinberger family has had a long tradition of local and district tennis success and at 68 years old, John Rheinberger is continuing this tradition - both in Australia and overseas.
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Rheinberger’s latest success comes in the form of selection to represent Australia in the 2014 Teams World Championships to be held in Turkey this month.
This came about as a result of reaching the final in the International Tennis Federation’s Oceania Seniors Claycourt Championships in March at Kooyong.
He was one of three locals to play at the event, the other two being Dennis Love and Bob Warren.
After such a successful run in the tournament he was encouraged to nominate to for the Australian 2014 Teams World Championships.
In June he was advised of his selection as the number two player in the four-man Australian team to compete in the 65-plus group for the Britannia Cup.
The event will take place from October 13-18 at the Alibey Club Manavgat, near Antalya on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.
Rheinberger’s team members are all players he knows and at times has played against and he believes the team is in with a good show, and is hoping also for a favourable draw.
Last year, 27 nations entered the event in the 65-plus age group with Australia achieving a ranking of eighth.
A solid week of tennis is expected with eight pools of three or four teams to play a round robin for the first three days with the leading teams going into a top-16 knockout draw to proceed to the final.
Losing teams will continue to play each day of the competition to establish a ranking from one to 27.
Australia will be represented in the men’s and ladies cups for 60-plus, 65-plus, 70-plus, 75-plus and 80-plus age groups.
In total there will be 40 Australians competing at this championship.
Rheinberger said he is really looking forward to the event, especially the downtime.
The venue is actually a resort, complete with individually fenced clay courts, four restaurants, two pools and a beach on the Mediterranean!
The individual World Championships of singles, doubles and mixed will follow.
Once the tennis is all over and done with, Rheinberger and wife Gae will then begin their own holiday adventure, returning to Istanbul via Anzac Cove, flying to Berlin and driving through Germany and Italy to Rome before having a few days stopover at Dubai on the way home.
Rheinberger has been playing tennis in the local district for about 55 years and one look at the Bega Tennis Club and FSC Tennis Association champions boards shows the extent of dominance the Rheinberger family has had in local tennis over the decades.
The name Rheinberger appears so many times, it is easy to lose count of all the titles the family has won.
John, parents Eddie and Aileen, and his siblings Janelle and Robert all played tennis.
Eddie won the district championships for 25 years until 1966 when Robert took over for the next four years before going overseas to play on the international circuit for 12 years.
He then coached for a further 11 years in Germany.
John won 13 district tennis championships from 1973 to 2009.
His last championship win was at the age of 64.
1966 was a year to remember for the Rheinbergers in the Far South Coast Tennis competition - Robert was champion in men’s singles, Janelle took out the women’s singles, Eddie was successful in the men’s doubles with partner Vern McNeil, Janelle along with her partner D Griffin won the ladies doubles, while Janelle and Robert teamed up in the mixed to win that title.
John’s current form is still just as impressive.
In his age group his singles ranking is 98 in the world, but he has been as high as 23 in October 2011; he has a current doubles ranking of 21 and current mixed doubles ranking of 85.
