Tennis players of all ages, skill levels and playing methods came out to the first tournament of the year, held over the weekend at Yukon College.

The event was organized by Stacy Lewis, Leighan Chalykoff and Kyle Marchuk, who are all coaches with the Tennis Yukon Association.

It began on Saturday with a junior group and concluded with adult competition, which was played on Sunday.

"This is just to keep the momentum going through the winter months," said Marchuk, who is also the Tennis Yukon's treasurer. "The main thing is awareness and getting more players out there, so hopefully by word of mouth we will get more players out here."

The competition was the first indoor tennis tournament organized by the Yukon Tennis Association in the past few years.

Planning began a month and a half ago during the cold spell, which provided the inspiration for the name.

Participants in the Forty Below Tennis Tournament paid an entry fee of $10.

Food and beverages were also provided to all entrants who took part in the event.

Additionally, prizes were given to all of the players involved, including a new can of tennis balls.

Saturday's competition featured 20 kids in total. The juniors were divided into two main groups.

The under-18 draw was for the more experienced younger players in the sport.

In this category, each entrant played between three or four matches. Matches consisted of one set, which lasted on average about 45 minutes.

Round robin play was also used and two final matches determined first and third place in the standings.

The other category was called the junior progressive tournament. Competitors in this group used mini-nets and spongy balls.

Games in the progressive tournament were played on just one side of the court.

Beginners in the progressive group also played 20-minute timed matches at the event.

The goal for the junior event was to get used to playing in a competition and to help prepare them for future competitions both in and outside of the territory.

Besides the tennis balls, ribbons were awarded in the junior tournaments and entrants also got to choose from a variety of dollar store prizes to take home.

In a very competitive match in the Boys 18 and Under final, Charlie Kedziora beat Logan Roots 6-4 in their one and only set.

The battle for third place in this category was even closer, with Braydon Thompson just edging out Kieran Halliday by a set score of 7-5.

Louis Kedziora and John Quarton each tied for fifth place in the competition's standings.

In the only reported Progressive Junior tennis match Ewan Halliday defeated Pascale Halliday 4-2 in their 20-minute set.

Sunday's adult competition featured 10 people, who averaged about four matches in total. Competitors played a combination of both singles and doubles matches.

The purpose of the adult competition was more about creating additional tennis awareness and trying to help people think of it as a year round sport.

Round one of the women's singles competition featured three games in total. In the first contest, Hideko Yamamoto won her match against Kathleen Avery 6-0.

Sue Carr also played very well, beating Joy Quarton 6-2, while Anita Diakow defeated Ann MacDonald by the same 6-2 score.

In round two, Yamamoto continued her strong play, defeating Car 6-0, while Avery won against Diakow 6-1. Quarton was also victorious, just beating MacDonald 6-4 in their close single set match.

The women's winner in the singles competition ended up being Yamamoto, while the runner up was Avery.

For the men's open singles competition, Tom Pan played an impressive match against Mike Pounder to start off round one, winning 6-0.

In the other matchup, Beth Ellis got off on a winning note, defeating Chris Ziegler 6-2.

Ziegler bounced back in round two to defeat Pounder 6-1, while Pan continued his great play, winning the set against Ellis 6-0.

The final round saw Ellis beat Pounder 6-1, while Pan won against Ziegler 6-1 to finish with the best record and win the men's singles event. Ellis finished in second place.

In an entertaining doubles final, it was Pan and Ziegler who, after dropping their opening set 4-6 to Ellis and Pounder, managed to come back and win the following two to take the match. The scores in the two other sets were 6-3 and 6-1.

Marchuk said he was pleased with how the event went.

"We were very happy with it," he said. "It was the perfect amount of people, no one was waiting for too long.

We even had some new juniors we had never seen before or even sign up for the tournament that just showed up and we were able to get them in, so it just keeps growing and growing."

Ziegler said he was happy about taking part in the event and that it felt good to win the doubles match.

"I had a good partner and the team we played was really on, so we were pretty lucky to get the win," he said. "It was just great to be out and I have never played with anybody here and you could tell the other team had played together before."

This was his first time playing the sport in 10 years and Ziegler plans to become involved in the sport again in the spring.

"After coming out this weekend, I definitely have the bug to play some more," he said. "It was enjoyable and again, I think a lot of credit goes to the group that organized it and I just encourage others to come out and give it a shot."