– Many of these players, beyond competing in the championships, were also fighting their own battles off the court. That is why these trophies, these victories and your presence here mean so much more. Congratulations to you twice over! – said Aleksandra Ryndak during the closing ceremony of the 3rd Polish Blind Tennis Championships, held this past weekend on the courts of Leszno Tenis Klub. The event was co-organized by the Polish Tennis Association, and we at Vest Media had the pleasure of handling the live streaming throughout the entire tournament.

Vest Media behind the camera and microphone

For us, every blind tennis tournament is more than just a technical production. It is a sport in which players move around the court guided solely by the sound of the rattling ball – and that makes a tremendous impression on the viewer. Throughout the weekend we ran a live broadcast from the courts of Leszno Tenis Klub, so that fans following the action remotely could share in the excitement of the championships as well.

Commentary, court feeds, statistics and scores were all brought together into one cohesive broadcast. Working with blind tennis takes a certain sensitivity – you have to describe the picture so the coverage is clear even for people who cannot see the match, while still conveying the pace and drama of every rally.

Blind Tennis Referee – the app that supported referees and players

The championships in Leszno were another test for our own application – Blind Tennis Referee. It is a tool built specifically for blind tennis referees: it lets them keep score, track statistics and push results live. Referees ran the matches from their phones, and the scores appeared instantly on an online scoreboard – visible both courtside and to fans watching the tournament remotely.

This time the app helped with more than just scorekeeping. We launched a new schedule feature – a full timetable of the matches that made life much easier for referees and players alike. Everyone could check, in real time, who was playing next, when and on which court. At a tournament of this size, with matches running in parallel on several courts, having that schedule on hand saved a great deal of confusion and kept the whole weekend running smoothly.

What can Blind Tennis Referee do?

• Real-time match scoring by the referee
• Automatic live results sent to blindtennis.app
• A schedule with the full match timetable – for referees and players
• Support for multiple courts at once
• Match history and tournament statistics
• Support for different categories (B1, B2, B3, B4)
• Eventually: a global player database, rankings, player profiles, the history of every tournament and a points system

The app is available as a beta on Google Play. Our goal is for the system to become a comprehensive tool for the entire blind tennis community – a single database of players, tournaments, results and statistics on a global scale.

3rd Polish Blind Tennis Championships – results

B1 Women

1. Monika Dubiel (ATNiS Warszawa)
2. Justyna Szafranek (ATNiS Lublin)
3. Magdalena Kokot-Rybińska (ATNiS Gdynia)

B1 Men

1. Rafał Sudoł (ATNiS Łódź)
2. Sławomir Tolak-Ciszewski (ATNiS Lublin)
3. Łukasz Chmielewski (ATNiS Warszawa)

B2 Women

1. Justyna Stopierzyńska (ATNiS Świątki)
2. Małgorzata Ignasiak (ATNiS Poznań)
3. Katarzyna Pietruszyńska (ATNiS Chorzów)

B2 Men

1. Jarosław Stopierzyński (ATNiS Świątki)
2. Michał Orchowski (ATNiS Warszawa)
3. Emil Stopierzyński (ATNiS Świątki)

B3 Women

1. Aleksandra Karakula (ATNiS Warszawa)
2. Kamilla Malak (ATNiS Poznań)
3. Małgorzata Olkiewicz (ATNiS Toruń)

B3 Men

1. Michał Stypa (ATNiS Chorzów)
2. Tomasz Błoński (ATNiS Warszawa)
3. Damian Hortecki (ATNiS Wrocław)

B4 Women

1. Katarzyna Antczak (ATNiS Toruń)
2. Oliwia Marciniak (ATNiS Bydgoszcz)
3. Kinga Przewoźna (ATNiS Poznań)

B4 Men

1. Mateusz Balwierz (ATNiS Wrocław)
2. Jarosław Skarżyński (ATNiS Warszawa)
3. Zbigniew Haftka (ATNiS Warszawa)

Organization and partners

The matches were played on the courts of Leszno Tenis Klub, with the Polish Tennis Association as co-organizer. The event was overseen by Paweł Chobot and Aleksandra Ryndak, who coach players of the Academy of Tennis for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ATNiS) on a daily basis and serve as national team coaches in blind tennis.

The championships were held as part of the Returnieje III project and were co-financed by the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons (PFRON) and the Ministry of Sport and Tourism.

We thank everyone and every institution that helped the championships run so smoothly – the referees, volunteers, commentators, fans and our partners: Polish Tennis Association, Leszno Tenis Klub, Medicus Med, Abj-Vision Poland, Poland Optical Sp. z o.o. and Vest Kanał.

It was a fantastic event – congratulations to the winners and to all the players. See you next year! More photos in the following posts.