Royal Melbourne Tennis Club

This weekend we are hosting the third leg of the ARTA National League competition! It promises to be a big weekend of very competitive tennis and socialising.

Come down to support your favourite club!

📅 Sat. 12 – Sun. 13 September
📍 RMTC (18 Sherwood St, Richmond)

Why do Australian courts feature a monk’s head in the grille?

Real Tennis has its origins in Europe, starting as a form of handball played by monks in monastery cloisters during the 11th century. Legend has it the very first tennis balls were made from discarded monastic robes.

The Australian tradition of displaying a monk in the grille (reminiscent of a monk imprisoned in a cell) began in Hobart during the 1960s. In the early '70s, a visiting RMTC team was presented with Hobart’s monk after a razor-thin victory, displaying it with great pride at the old Exhibition Street court. When we moved to Sherwood Street, Lesley Ronaldson painted a replica to feature on the south court (see slide 4).

Ballarat soon followed suit, Romsey chose 15th-century player Margot of Hainault, while Sydney’s new court has a unique direct view outside (or inside if you are looking the other way).

No monks were harmed in this post - all be it slightly bored.

Keep the Barry Toates Trophy at Melbourne! 🏆🎾

We’re looking for players to represent RMTC against a visiting Sydney (SRTC) side with familiar and new faces (that new court sure helps with recruitment and skills!).

Event Details:
📅 Saturday, 19 September

⏰ Full day of Real Tennis

📍 RMTC (18 Sherwood St, Richmond)

📝 Sign up with the pros (Link in bio!)

The History:
Named after a true living legend of Australian Real Tennis, the Barry Toates Trophy honours a man who helped spark the game's modern resurgence. Barry was Head Professional at both HRTC (1967–1977 and 2007–2016) and RMTC (1988–2005), a 10-times Australian Open Singles Champion (9 times consecutively), and coach to Australia’s first Real Tennis World Champion, Judith Clarke.

Come play, support, and help us keep the trophy where it belongs!

RMTC Beginners & New Players Night - Wednesday 26 August

If you’ve played tennis, squash, or pickleball, it’s time to try the game that inspired them all. Real tennis is physical chess played in a cathedral of sport.

Next week, we open our doors and take prospective new players on court to give them a taste of our great game.

Never picked up a racquet? Perfect — that's the whole point of the night. Let our Pros show you the game and play on the actual courts of world champions.

What makes real tennis different:

🎯 The Point Isn't Over When the Ball Passes You: Unlike lawn tennis or pickleball, if the ball whizzes past you, the point isn’t dead. You can play it off the many walls, surfaces and even the penthouse roof, or set up a chase—giving you a second chance to win the point later.

🧠 Brain Over Brawn: Real tennis tolerates power — but it rewards accuracy. Spin, angles, and geometry win points that brute force can't.

⚖️ True Equaliser: Our precise handicapping system means a 25-year-old and a 65-year-old can play a genuinely nail-biting match.

👇 RMTC Beginners & New Players Night
📅 Date: Wednesday 26 August
⏰ Time: 6pm - 7.30pm
📍 Location: 18 Sherwood St, Richmond VIC 3121
🎟️ All Gear provided. Just bring non-marking shoes (most important)!
👉 RSVP with our Pro Shop - spots are limited (phone or email - see link in our description)

First Friday of the Month is back in August — except it's landing on Friday 14th.

Yes, the second Friday.

We know! Real tennis, real inconsistent calendars.

✅ An exhibition match guaranteed to entertain
✅ Classic French fare — pâté, duck, clafoutis
✅ Happy hour drinks
✅ Good company — the dedans will have opinions

Book with the Pro Shop before the spots vanish.

A few snaps from a great International Tennis Day at the club! 🎾

Loved the mix on court today — Richmond Cup Handicap contenders, our faithful regulars, and some elite players sharpening their game.

A massive thank you to our incredible Pros and staff. We’re incredibly lucky to have the community and facilities we do here at Richmond.

Wherever you’re playing real tennis today, we hope you had a cracking day on court. As ITD wraps up here in Australia, it's just getting started for our friends in France, the UK and the USA. 🇦🇺🇫🇷🇬🇧🇺🇸 And a shout out to our real tennis family in the Netherlands and Ireland. 🇳🇱🇮🇪

🎾 International Tennis Day — Saturday 20 June

Last year, RMTC made history: we recorded the very first tennis match played anywhere in the world on International Tennis Day (ITD), verified by BookingSheet. A small but proud moment for our club and our game.

This year, we're doing it again — and we'd love you to join us.
👉 Book a court and get a game in�👉 Grab a photo with the ITD banner near the bar�👉 Share it with

International Tennis Day spans 39 hours — opening at midnight in Melbourne and closing at midnight in Chicago — with clubs participating across Australia, France, the UK, and the USA.

The date honours the Tennis Court Oath of 20 June 1789, when nearly 600 delegates gathered at Versailles in a moment that helped spark the French Revolution (next 2 images). It defined what is left and right in politics as delegates passed the net post to get on court.

Our courts have always been places where things happen!

See you on court. 🎾

With thanks to the U.S. Court Tennis Preservation Foundation.

Joan M. Hayne Women’s Handicap Doubles

Players wanted - Sun. 14 June

Open to all women of the Club, plus active RTO women players of ARTA and International Clubs visiting Melbourne (RTO handicap must be active).

It’s the ideal warm-up for the Lola Montez Women’s Handicap Doubles weekend hosted by from 26 - 28 June!

This is always a fun event with plenty of tennis, and great food. Find yourself a partner - or let the Pros pair you up.

A bit of history:
This event is named after one of the Club's first women members. In 1932 the Club changed a bylaw to allow women to join RMTC — and we've been making up for lost time ever since.

Sign up with the Pros.

Quarterly Medal #2 - Players Wanted

Sat. 23 May - AM or PM sessions. A great real tennis mini tournament for your Saturday.

Your choice of morning or afternoon round robin handicap singles - 5 players per group - all your matches are 25 minutes on the clock.

Perfect for members who haven’t been on court for a while, or active RTO members of ARTA and International Clubs passing through Melbourne.

Sign up with the Pros.

Many happy returns to the Manchester Tennis and Racquet Club (.1874) and all its members on their 150th anniversary celebrations next week!

Our history together stretches back many years, with members occasionally joining us for matches when nearby. However, things really took off when Richard Christmas brought his team from Manchester and visited in September 1992, and in return, an RMTC team visited Manchester in 1993.

The Boomerang Cup was born from these handicap doubles matches between the two clubs, with Richard Christmas’s team clinching the first Boomerang Cup at RMTC in 1994. This marked the beginning of a wonderful tradition of friendship and fair play.

Today, the Blackfriars-Sherwood Cup is played right after the Boomerang Cup tournament and is named after our street addresses.

We hope to see you on court again soon!

MRTC V RMTC illustrations from “Chase The Line - The Art of ‘Mikko’ Michael Lindell” edited by Richard Travers. Royal Melbourne Tennis Club Monograph Series No. 4 (2019)