Saturday, October 23 was a cold morning for all the aspiring tennis players signed up for Seymour Smash. The temperature dipped below 50 for the better part of the day but rose to the mid-50s by 2:00 pm. Despite the chill, matches began at 9 am sharp.

Saturday was all singles, with multiple brackets including 14U, 16U, and 18U. Everything went according to plan, with only a light sprinkle at the end of the day. However, Sunday was a different story. Thunderstorms rolled in overnight and drenched the tennis courts. The morning matches were optimistically postponed until early afternoon, but this ideal only lasted for a short time.

In hopes of readying the tennis courts for play by 2:30, a large group dragged leaf blowers, towels, brooms, and other assorted tools out at noon to give their best effort at speeding up the drying process. This worked for a short half hour until a burst of rain erased any progress and forced everyone to start again. Despite nature’s best efforts, the courts were dry in time to start matches around 4:00 pm. The biggest loss of the day was any and all doubles matches being shortened to an 8-game pro set, instead of best 2 out of 3 sets to 6.

Overall, the tournament was a huge success, and it pulled people from Seymour, Columbus, Floyd County, and more.