ONcourt Weekly Edition: August 13 – August 19
Michael Paduch Weighs In
***Michael Paduch is President and Founder of the “Challengers” Tennis Academies of Canada Inc, a company he started earlier this year in Ottawa. Michael was born in Poland in the early 1970s, where he played for over a decade as a junior ending up eventually on a university tennis team overcoming a major leg injury due to a non-sports-related road accident. Michael returned to tennis after a long (too long…) time away from the sport and got involved in teaching: first as a sparring partner to several juniors, and later as a certified tennis instructor and a club pro. Tennis added the missing sport dimension in Michael’s life, something he wants to give back to the community through his new company.***
Casey wrote on 2012/08/10: http://oncourt.ca/?p=5151
Casey, thank you for an interesting article on a very important subject. But even more so, thank you for contributing to the wave of change in Canadian tennis that Milos and his successes are generating.
The core problem of High Performance tennis funding in Canada is in itself complex, and solutions may not be simple. There are issues of political will to fund sports in aging society in general, the issues of still remaining notion of “elitist” (non-egalitarian) nature of tennis in the mindset of the public at large, and the issue of the role of national institutions in growing talent.
To read the full article, please click here.
Michael Emmett: “Debilitating Doubles Decision”
***Michael Emmett is the Director of Tennis Operations at all Mayfair clubs. He is a certified Tennis Canada Coach 3 with a Journalism degree from the University of Texas. Michael spent several years working in sports television at TSN and Sportsnet. Michael is a former National champion who finished his last year of junior tennis ranked #1 in Canada. Michael has coached several National champions when he worked for the All-Canadian Academy at the National Tennis Centre at York University in the early 90s. Michael spent 2 years traveling the world playing the ATP tour satellite circuit as a member of the Molson National Team in 1985 and ’86.***
The 2012 Rogers Cup in Toronto has been nothing short of a disaster, in large part due to the horrible weather they were forced to deal with in the latter part of the week, and the lackluster performances from the game’s stars. Even Milos Raonic looked brutal in his quarterfinal loss to hard-serving American John Isner. Milos clearly was out of sorts, and this could be blamed for not having played a match in 3 days. Having Federer and Nadal pull out at the last minute was somewhat unexpected, and it took away from the marquee value of one of the best tournaments in the world. The Rogers Cup (men) has had terrific fields in the last 5 years, and unfortunately, this year they were hand-cuffed because of the Olympic event which ended just 24 hours before the start of the Rogers Cup.
To read the full article, please click here.
2012 Under 14 Rogers Junior Nationals:
Questions and Comments about the Event
***Miron Mann, Tom Blazejewski and Ben Armstrong led the U14 Team Ontario to the U14 National Championships in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec last week. Team Ontario won the Team Cup for the province with the highest total of points. Ontario had a Champion, Finalist and 4 out of the top 5 in Girls Singles. On the boys’ side, Ontario also had 4 out of the top 5 finishers. ONcourt interviewed some of the players about their recent experience at the Nationals.***
ONcourt: Was this your first Nationals?
Maria Tanasescu: No, I played U12 Indoors and Outdoors Nationals in 2012. It was my first U14.
Anjana Suresh: No, this is my 5th Nationals and my 3rd U14 Nationals.
Vicky DiMuzio: No, I’ve played more than 8 Nationals for the past 4 years.
Anna Philp: No, this was my 3rd Canadian Nationals, but I have also played 2 Nationals in England before moving here.
Nicole Iourkevitch: Yes, but now I’m on my way to my second Nationals (U16′s).
Ivan Radomirovic: Yes.
To read the full article, please click here.