Briohny Lebbink from Macedon Tennis Club never thought she would be someone who\u2019d play competitive tennis.<\/p>\n
As someone who had barely swung a racquet or stepped foot on a tennis court, the thought of competing always seemed a step too far.<\/p>\n
That is, until a good friend introduced Lebbink to Cardio Tennis at her local club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t have a [tennis] background before Cardio Tennis,\u201d said Lebbink. \u201cThat’s how I started playing tennis. One of my girlfriends who had a history in tennis \u2026 she said, \u2018I think you should come. I think you’ll really like it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI did love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
What started as a casual and non-committal fitness outlet led to so much more. Lebbink, mother of an 11-year-old daughter who\u2019s followed in her footsteps and also taken up tennis, saw her Cardio Tennis journey as an act of self-care, a rare moment in the day when she could focus solely on herself, her fitness, and her friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a fun environment to be in,\u201d Lebbink said, \u201cand at first, my goal was just to hit the ball. I didn’t care where it went, just if I actually made contact with the racquet.\u201d<\/p>\n
She enjoyed it so much so that she convinced other friends, who are also mothers, to join.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve encouraged a couple of the other mums from school to come along and they’ve been loving it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’ve been all, \u2018well this is some time for me\u2019. So, you’re working out, but you’re enjoying yourself at the same time. And \u2026 we all go for a walk around the oval after we’ve finished cardio as our own cool down now as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brings people together at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between school drop-offs, pick-ups and errands, finding time to do the things you love \u2013 especially for a mother of young children \u2013 can be difficult. For Lebbink, it\u2019s the flexibility of Cardio Tennis that works so well.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re getting mums [whose] kids play tennis, their kids go to coaching for tennis, but they’re not necessarily doing it themselves,\u201d she explained. \u201cI’ve said, \u2018why don’t you come and try Cardio on a Monday?\u2019. We do it straight after school drop-offs. And so, a few of them have got involved that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is a fun way to lean into tennis, and then it’s a fun way to then be part of the tennis club without having to be serious about tennis as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lebbink was one of the select few who were invited to play Cardio Tennis at Margaret Court Arena during Australian Open 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a great experience to do that, to come out of [the Walk of Champions] and then to come onto the court and see it from the [player\u2019s] perspective,\u201d she reflected. \u201cTo be down on the court and see how the players must feel, having everybody’s eyes [looking] down on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only did Lebbink and the Cardio Tennis crew enjoy the opportunity to hit on court, but they were also joined by Jelena Dokic, ambassador for Cardio Tennis presented by Chemist Warehouse.<\/p>\n
From never picking up a racquet herself, to finding herself standing on a Grand Slam stage, Lebbink\u2019s tennis journey has taken a delightful twist. But her parting message about Cardio Tennis doesn\u2019t really have much to do with tennis at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of women need that social connection too. And that’s what they get out of a group fitness class. And that’s what cardio is offering. It’s offering a bit of a connection \u2026 you don’t need to be confident enough to play [competition tennis] or the skill set,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can just go and enjoy yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Briohny Lebbink from Macedon Tennis Club never thought she would be someone who\u2019d play competitive tennis. As someone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,194653,72820,85,747],"class_list":["post-642269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cardio-tennis","tag-news-article","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}