Canada Summer Games a chance to grow
Team Toba tennis betting on youthful tenacity in games
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This article was published 31/07/2017 (3303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Manitoba’s young tennis team will enter the Canada Summer Games as underdogs with a fierce bite.
Team manager Nelly Dvornicka said the tournament, which gets underway on Aug. 7 at the Winnipeg Lawn Tennis Club (761 North Dr.), is going to be a tough slog for the province’s athletes as they square off against older, more experienced competitors from across the country.
“The competition is going to be tough, no matter which province we face,” Dvornicka said.
“There will be some that will obviously be stronger than others but with a very young team we’re looking at just overall development going into the next games and being better players, given how young we are.”
The team’s roster includes players as young as 12 and as old as 15, though many have been playing for over half a dozen years.
Dvornicka said the players are approaching the Games as a learning opportunity to prepare for future tournaments and become stronger tennis players all-around.
“They’re really seeing this as a great opportunity to be a bit of an underdog,” she said. “That comes with perks in terms of being able to do stay a little bit more relaxed and really compete and not worry so much about the results.
“Hopefully they’ll be able to absorb everything and pass it down the road to the new generation of players.”
The athletes said they feel confident about the upcoming test and are excited to compete in front of a home crowd.
Representing the province in female doubles are local players Monika Popovic and Maya Arksey.
Popovic, a 15-year-old from Richmond West, said the duo shouldn’t be counted out too early and are hoping to get at least three wins and a point for Manitoba.
The Vincent Massey Collegiate student recently won the women’s open singles category at the Winnipeg Lawn Tennis Club Open and the Deer Lodge Classic tournaments. She also snagged the U16 girls’ singles title at the Prairie Junior Championships and was second in U16 and U18 girls’ singles at the Tuxedo Junior Open.
Arksey, a 14-year-old from Linden Woods, is currently ranked third in the province in the U16 category and 99th nationwide. She also spends about four months a year training at the 4 Slam Tennis Academy in Barcelona, Spain.
“For us as a team we just want to communicate as much as we can and we have a good relationship, a good connection, so it should be pretty good if we use that to our advantage,” Popovic said. “Just because we’re going in as underdogs doesn’t mean we need to under-perform.”
“It’s more for experience for us because we’re so young,” Arksey added. “We want to be competitive and play to our potential.”
Thirteen-year-old Elinor Shpunt said the Canada Summer Games is an opportunity to lay out all her talent on the court in front of her family and friends.
The incoming Grant Park High School student recently won the 2017 Tuxedo Junior Open singles title in the U16 and U14 categories. In 2016 , she won the women’s open singles title at the Manitoba Clay Court Championships.
“What I want to do is just play my best game possible. If I lose, I want to lose knowing I played my best, that I made mistakes and I know what I’ve done wrong, and when I win a point, I want to know how I won and how to continue winning,” Shpunt said.
“I’m just going to give everything I’ve got and whatever happens, happens.”