Farm work keeps tennis veteran on top of his game

Ken Harris is a stalwart of the Australian veteran’s tennis circuit.

The 77-year-old Geraldton local has been a consistent fixture at national tournaments since he was convinced by his old friend Doug Napier to enter into the 40-plus doubles division of the Australian Seniors Tennis Championships in 1980.

The duo went on to win that tournament and the rest, as they say, is history.

Since then, Harris has competed at 26 AST Championships and the wily veteran is not done with yet — in fact he is in the midst of preparing to skipper the WA 75-80 side at the 2016 outing in Shepparton.

His team were runners-up at last year’s event and features the No.1- ranked Japanese player for his age group, Noriji Kataoka, but he is still keeping a lid on expectations before they go away.

“We just about beat the ones who got us last year, but they could have a couple of new ones coming into the age group,” he said.

“But you never know … we’ve got a good team and a good group.”

Harris said running, playing tennis twice a week and working on his son’s farm in Binnu helped keep him in shape for whenever the tournament rolled around.

“I go out and help him cart the wheat (and) do a bit of crop spraying for him just to keep busy,” he said.

“I do quite a bit of running and farming — farming keeps you pretty fit.”

While Harris may be approaching the end of his tennis journey, he still has a couple of goals he would like to tick off his list.

“My ambition’s always been to get into an Australian team — I’ve got pretty close to it but I’m just always that one behind it,” he said.

“But you never know, in the 80s (division) I wouldn’t mind getting into one team.”

Harris has a couple of years before he qualifies for that age bracket, but with his track record of previous performances it would be a brave decision to bet against him reaching his goal.