91原创 Tennis Centre will hold its official grand opening at 20611 80th Ave. on Thursday, Sept. 2 with an open house that will include free games, clinics and prizes from 1 to 7 p.m. 鈥� and a ribbon cutting by the acting mayor at 6 p.m.

Tennis Centre general manager Larry Jurovich said it wasn鈥檛 clear what impact the provincial decision to make masks a requirement again 鈥� and to introduce vaccine passports 鈥� would have on the facility.

鈥淲e are still waiting on official word from Tennis B.C. and Via Sport,鈥� Jurovich told the 91原创 Advance Times.

鈥淭hat said, last year, through everything, tennis was never considered a 鈥榟igh intensity鈥� fitness class so all we had to do was show a solid COVID. As you know, tennis inherently has a lot of social distancing so it is easy to demonstrate a safe environment.鈥�

Jurovich was also waiting for word on whether the centre would have to require proof of vaccination.

鈥淢y understanding again was that [the passport] applies to all of the types of businesses that were not allowed to operate at all last year, [such as] indoor dining, fitness centres etc.鈥�

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For Jurovich, the 91原创 facility represent a return to familiar surroundings.

He grew up in 91原创 and started his coaching career here, so after 30 years of coaching in every corner of the world 鈥渋t feels like this centre represents my career coming full circle.鈥�

Jurovich has developed grand-slam calibre players who have represented their country in Davis Cup and Fed Cup events, winning, and have won more than 40 national championships.

He has coached other coaches, creating top-level training programs in Canada and the U.K.for their national coaches.

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The new 91原创 facility aims to serve the eastern Fraser Valley with programs ranging from age four to adult for all levels of ability.

More information can be found online at .

Since the pandemic hit, in the U.S. there has been a 50-per-cent increase in people playing tennis.

Racquet sales among first-time players jumped 38 per cent and the number of players now stands at 11 per cent compared to the pre-pandemic level of seven per cent.