Australia’s Henry Younger is the primary participant aged 100 to compete on the ITF Masters World Particular person Championships.
Mallorca, Spain, 18 October 2023 | Leigh Rogers
Australian Henry Younger is making historical past this week, turning into the primary competitor aged 100 to ever compete on the ITF Masters World Particular person Championships.
The Adelaide-based Younger, who was a fighter pilot in World Warfare II, celebrated his one centesimal birthday final month.
He’s at present in Spain for the 2023 ITF Masters World Particular person Championships, the place the world’s greatest gamers aged 65 and over are competing in Mallorca.
“It’s good to be the primary,” Younger stated of his record-breaking achievement. “It’s one thing that no one can ever take away from me.”
Younger proved he isn’t just making up numbers within the 90+ class both, scoring a 6-2 6-3 victory towards 95-year-old Spaniard Mateo Camps Simon within the opening spherical of the boys’s singles competitors.
He’ll now face third-seeded Brit Gordon Oates, a 91-year-old, within the quarterfinals.
Younger can also be competing within the males’s doubles occasion with German Gerhard Walkerling, who’s 11 years his junior.
“I wish to get pleasure from myself and I like tennis, that’s why I play,” Younger instructed ITFTennis.com.
“I like the aggressive spirit of tennis. I’ve been aggressive all my life and that’s what I like concerning the sport.”
Younger is competing on the ITF Masters Particular person World Championships for the primary time since 2012.
Though he has not competed internationally for the previous decade, Younger nonetheless performs as much as 4 occasions every week in Adelaide.
He was additionally invited to compete at Rod Laver Area throughout a Tennis Performs for Peace exhibition at Australian Open 2023, the place he confronted 99-year-old Ukrainian Leonid Stanislavskyi in a ‘Battle of the Centurions’.
“I’ve bought two new knees, a brand new hip, a pacemaker, listening to aids, two new noses and I’m nonetheless taking part in and having fun with it,” Younger laughed.
“I feel significantly whenever you’re very previous, I feel it’s very good to have one thing that retains you lively.
“I’ll preserve taking part in till I begin embarrassing my doubles companions. I feel I’ve bought just a few years left in me but.”
> VIEW: 2023 ITF Masters World Particular person Championships attracts
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