As most of us know, Bigga isn't exactly centrally located and tennis courts and good competition are hard to come by, so Ridland found he had to turn to his father, Gary, for a hit once every few weeks.

He first picked up a racquet at three, when his father and mother (Margaret) played in the Saturday morning competition in Crookwell. “That competition tennis was huge 25 years ago,” he said. “I started playing my first competition in Bigga on the two old dirt courts, playing night competition when I was about 11.”

He played in the Under-13, U15 and U19 junior championships in Crookwell – still aged 11.

“I played my first tournament away when I was 13, at Batemans Bay,” he said. “I didn't have a lesson until I was 15 and started to play regular junior tournaments from age 13 every few weeks.  At 17, I was lucky enough to play in ‘Country Week’, which was held at the prestigious White City Tennis Club.”

This experience was a highlight of his young career.

At 16, he met Mick Gerstenberg, who was coaching at Goulburn and Crookwell at the time. “I began lessons once every two weeks for a year. I then got into coaching at some holiday camps that Mick used to run in Crookwell and realised that coaching was a possible career choice after high school.”

Ridland started coaching in Crookwell, Goulburn, Taralga, Young and Harden, on and off for about 10 years, racking up some serious kilometres on his “old” commodore. In May he got the opportunity to take on the head coach role at the main tennis centre in Goulburn.

Ridland has already held successful gala day competitions with four other towns from around the south-west region. “We had nearly 80 kids participate, holding junior championships, which yielded 65 participants over two days of tennis,” he said.

“Life can't get much better at the moment. My wife Bec is a huge help behind the scenes. All this … wouldn't be possible without Bec.” 

They are expecting their second child in November, to join Ayla, who is nearly four.