Vale Ajay Tandon – Life Member and Former President

It is with a heavy heart that we write to inform you that our former President and Life Member Mr Ajay Tandon passed away in the early hours of Saturday morning. Our thoughts and hearts are with Carol and the rest of his family and loved ones during these heartbreaking times and we are reaching out to offer any support we can provide to help them through these difficult moments. Ajay was a terrific club stalwart and ambassador and was our club’s longest-serving President spending almost a decade in the position. It was during his tenure that the club underwent significant transformations that has been recognised by our members and the wider tennis community and turned us into the club that we are today. However, Ajay’s amazing contribution to the club started well before his stint as President. Through mid-week social tennis that he championed for so long and competitions hosted at Manning in partnership with other associations, he helped pave the way to bring people from our club, other clubs and others across the community together. In 2015, Ajay was awarded Life Membership at our club and last year his contribution to the tennis community at large was deservedly recognised when he was named as a Finalist in the Service to Tennis category in the WA Tennis Industry Awards. As stellar as his tennis credentials were, they pale in comparison with who Ajay was as a person. In both his capacity as a member and President, he was generous with his time and was always focused on making people feel at home at our club. Whether you were a member or not, it didn’t really matter because for him, the minute you stepped foot through our gates, he saw and treated you like part of the MTC family. Ajay’s vision was to make sure that the club truly had something for everyone in the family regardless of age and whether you played tennis or not – a vision that we continue to hold dear to our club’s soul. He wanted the club to be not just a tennis club but more importantly a community, one where generations of families would continue to be a part of for decades to come, always growing with new faces each year. For many people at the club, Ajay was also a dear friend. His kindness, generosity, loyalty and humour merely a handful of so many amazing qualities that easily endeared him to so many of us. Ajay loved the club and we loved Ajay. While it’s difficult at this point in time to reminisce and cherish all our fond memories of Ajay without feeling a great sense of sadness, we will never forget his warmth, his laugh (especially when he used to mischievously decree it ‘Happy Hour as ordered by the President’) and his mere presence at the club. The world is a lesser place with his passing, and we’ll miss him terribly. We will always remember him in spirit and in our hearts for his contributions to our MTC family and for who he was as a person. Rest in Peace Ajay. We miss you already dear friend.