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ELITE ACADEMY’S MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
THE ELITIST
APRIL
Male suada Quis
Dolor set Ipsum
mauris sapien vitae
soldales erat
2 WHAT’S NEW AT ELITE
Follow us on our Facebook
Page Elite Tennis Academy
and Twitter
@EliteTennisVan. We’ll
follow you back!
Indoor Nationals
Champion’s Showdown
@ UBC
3 DID YOU KNOW
Max Korkh in Israel
Coach Khristina
hired at Tennis BC
UPDATE ON
SPORTSTOWN
Elite’s Plans
POWERSHARES
EXCEL FITNESS MOVE
Darcie & Scott’s
New Home
4 PLAYER OF THE
MONTH
[1]
Michelle Lim
5 FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Feature Article:
Tennis Fear by Ray
Brown
6 APRIL TOURNAMENTS
From Rookie Tours to
National
Championships, see
what’s in store
this month@
WHAT’S NEW AT ELITE
Canadian Indoor Nationals
The 2015 Canadian Indoor
National Championships are in full
swing right now across the
country. Elite is proud to be
sending eight students to compete
at Canada’s most prestigious junior
event!
first two rounds, defeating
BC teammate Aaron
Diemer in the first round.
In the consolation draw,
Kiran would win one
Kiran: U16
more match to make it
Nationals
to Round 5 in
Doubles
consolations before
Finalist!
falling to Branagh
U12: Calgary
The U12 Nationals were held at Pattison-Blouin of
compete. Jessie’s run
Quebec
6-4
6-4.
Kiran’s
true
the Tennis Academy in Calgary,
ended in the third round, where
moment
of
shine
came
on
the
Alberta from March 29 until April 4.
she was stopped by Quebec’s
doubles court. Partnering BC
Team BC consisted of four boys
Leylah Annie Fernandez, 6-3 6-0.
player Jack Davis, Kiran reached
and six girls. The final results saw
In the consolation, Jessie would
the boys title go to Ashton Cross of the finals! Elite’s Luka Vukovic also draw her doubles partner, Alberta’s
represented Elite in Montreal.
Ontario. On the girls side, Daria
Maya Dukari, defeating her 6-2
Unseeded, Luka went on to reach
Tomashevskaya, also of Ontario,
6-1. She would fall in the fifth
the quarterfinals - an impressive
took the top spot.
round of consolation to Tamara
result. In doubles, Luka played with
Racine-Beauchamp of Quebec
BC teammate Isaac Davies.
U16: Montreal
6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (4). In doubles action,
Together, they reached the second
Jessie reached the second round.
The U16 Nationals were held
round before falling to the number
Andreea received a bye first round,
March 28 until April 3 at Club de
one seeds and eventual
but was unable to make it past her
Tennis Ile-des-Soeurs in Montreal,
champions from Quebec. Ontario’s
second round opponent from
Quebec. Team BC was
Victor Krustev took the singles title
Alberta, Tereza Simonova (6-4. 3-6,
represented by a team of 5 boys
home.
6-4). She would also fall in
and 5 girls, with a total of four Elite
In the girls draw, Elite players
consolations in three sets.
players among them. In the boys
Jessie Gong and Andreea Craciun
draw, Kiran Phaterpekar won his
earned the opportunity to
Elite @ U14 Nationals
U14 & U18 Nationals
Coming Up!
April 6 - 12, 2015
• Luka Vukovic
• Renata Gabuzyan
Elite @ U18 Nationals
•
•
•
•
•
•
Neel Phaterpekar
Andrew Day (declined)
Eddie Wu
Max Korkh (declined)
Andreea Craciun
Dimitrije Vukovic
[2]
LOCATIONS
U14: Hollyburn Country Club
West Vancouver, B.C.
U16: Mayfair East
Markham, Ontario
Congratulations & Good
Luck!
DID YOU KNOW?
Max Korkh has opted out
of competing at the U18
Indoor Nationals for an
opportunity to play ITFs
in Israel with Coach
Vadim. Max will be
competing at the G4
Messika Open 2015 in Bat
Yam, followed by the G4
Alex Podolsky ITF in
Beer Sheva.
Best of luck!
Latest Update on
Sportstown: What’s
Happening to Elite?
Many of you have probably
received or seen the letter from
Craig Burnham, Sportstown’s
Assistant General Manager, about
the facility’s closure. We are also
sure that many of you have
questions, especially in regards to
what the next step is for Elite.
As mentioned in the letter from
Craig, the front desk and shop were
closed on March 31, while the rest of
student, parents, and their families.
the club is set to close June 30,
2015. That being said, the building
Sincerely,
will still be here until June 2016.
Both TSS Academy (the soccer
Elite Tennis Academy
academy on the other side) and Elite
Champions’s Showdown!
Don’t miss an opportunity to play
and watch the legends live in
Vancouver! This will be the first
PowerShares Series tennis circuit
event to be held in Canada. The first
semifinal will feature Mark
Phillippoussis VS Michael Chang, while
John McEnroe and Pete Sampras will
square off in the other semifinal.
Khristina Blajkevitch Hired By
Tennis BC
Former player and now
Elite coach, Khristina
Blajkevitch, has been also
hired by Tennis BC as
Director of Player
Development. This is a new
role the organization has
created in order to fill
the gap and facilitate the
pathway between community
tennis and high
performance tennis.
Tennis Academy are in the same
shoes. We have until June 2016 in
this facility, however, we also have
the option to move earlier.
Elite is currently looking at
different options for the future. In the
time being, we will remain at
Sportstown as to not disrupt our
student’s schedule and lives in the
middle of the Spring semester.
We will keep you up to date with
the development of our plans.
Please rest assured that we will not
make any moves without a
substantial prior notice to our
Fitness with Darcie & Scott
Venue: UBC Doug Mitchell
We know a lot of our students
do their fitness training with Darcie
and Scott at Sportstown. After all,
fitness is a key part of training and
tennis development! We hope that
our students maintain their
discipline with fitness. With the
changes taking place at
Sportstown, Excel will be moving
Thunderbird Sports
just down the road to Richmond
Centre
6066 Thunderbird Blvd
Sports and Fitness at #150 - 2251
Date: Saturday, May 2, 2015
Time: 7 PM (VIP start: 3 PM)
Sampras
McEnroe
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No 5 Road.
Phillippoussis
Chang
ELITE STUDENT OF THE MONTH: MICHELLE LIM
April’s Student of the Month is
Michelle Lim! Michelle has been
training at Elite since Summer 2014.
when she sees the results of her
hard work.
To date, Michelle is most proud
On training at Elite, Michelle
finds that her groups have the
highest concentration of BC’s top
She is typically on court with Vadim,
whether it’s a private, group lesson,
of her qualification for and
competing at eight Canadian
players in one place. She feels that
this is a rare occurrence in
or serving lesson.
Michelle got into tennis at the
National Championships.
Additionally, she treasures the
comparison with other training
facilities in BC. She also feels that
age of seven and has looked up to
opportunities she has had to travel
this is a great opportunity for the
Roger Federer throughout her
career for inspiration. Her favourite
for tournaments around North
America and Asia.
best in BC, including herself, to
continue pushing one another in
part about the game and perhaps
what has kept her going until today
When asked about her goals,
Michelle offers a mature and
practice.
Lastly, what would words of
is “how tennis (especially competing
realistic outlook, “I do not want to
wisdom would Michelle bestow
internationally) has taught me so
many important life lessons and
put any limits on my tennis and how
far I want to take myself in terms of
upon her younger self? “Enjoy the
process of learning new skills, and
skills that I wouldn’t have otherwise
learned and that cannot be
becoming a professional. I will take
opportunities if I earn them and if
developing as a player. Stay
persistent, work hard in practice and
replicated in a textbook.” Michelle
they come, but I would definitely like
when you compete you can trust
also enjoys working hard in practice
and the feeling of accomplishment
to go on a university scholarship for
tennis.”
your training and have belief that
you can win against any opponent.”
Michelle travels to Asia ITFs
51st
Brunei ITF
Junior Circuit
G4 March
2015
MICHELLE LIM
[4]
Michelle recently returned home
from traveling to junior ITF
tournaments in Brunei and Taiwan
with Elite Coach Khristina.
During her Spring Break trip,
Michelle competed at the 51st
Brunei ITF G4, followed by the
Speaker Cup Int’l Jr
Championships ITF G5 in Taiwan.
Besides working hard and gaining
experience, Michelle was also
able to take in some culture!
Pictured above, Michelle (left)
with Coach Khristina (right).
FOOD FOR
THOUGHT
Tennis Fear by Ray Brown from tennisconsult.com posted 07/07/14
For some of you, this article may be something new, something
a little “out there”, or perhaps you are well acquainted with
this phenomenon. We offer it to you as some food for thought.
Read it over, see how it may apply to you. The better you
get, the more detailed and smaller the improvements become finding and conquering them is what it takes to get that
edge.
Recent research from the University of Chicago
and the University of Wisconsin shed some very
interesting light on fear in tennis. Tennis is an eye-toeye combative sport. Unlike team sports or individual
sports such as track and field, tennis is an one-onone combative contest of wills, stamina and skill. In
this respect, tennis stimulates a part of the brain that
is millions of years old and which evolved to ensure
our survival in a primitive hostile environment. The
curious thing about this part of the brain, called the
limbic system, is that it cannot make subtle
distinctions between emotional threats and physical
threats to our well being. As a result, a tennis player
may experience the same fear of an emotional
situation that they would normally fear in a life
threatening situation. For example, in simplistic
terms, serving for a match can be as frightening as
being a passenger in a plane that is going to crash
land. The limbic systems cannot make the distinction.
The fear “build up” and subsequence increase in
blood pressure and heart rate that can occur in tennis
can be dissipated in a team sport by the presence of
teammates. In track and field it can be dissipated by
the fact that you do not have to face your opponent,
and in golf it can be dissipated to some degree by the
fact that your opponent cannot obstruct your actions
or intimidate you. But in tennis, you face all of these
“adversaries”.
What the recent research brings to the fore is that
movement alone can be a source of fear. Millions of
years of evolution have conditioned the limbic system
to register any object moving toward you as a threat.
The research even used a computer simulation
wherein the image “Aa” started out as small and then
grew larger, giving the appearance of moving forward,
to test a subjects response to movement. Even this
simple “perceived” movement registered fear.
Now, let’s hit the courts. You are at the baseline
and your opponent charges the net. This act will
evoke a primitive fear response. Unless you are
trained to deal with this response, you will likely make
an unforced error simply as a result of experiencing
primitive fear. The reason is that the limbic system
has direct “over ride” control of the motor systems
and will interject a “tick” or jerk into your stroke
causing it to go astray. And that is not the only
problem. You are in a baseline rally and the ball keeps
coming back right at you. This alone can evoke a fear
response that causes you to weaken a bit and begin
hitting short, giving your opponent a significant
advantage. Tennis is continual movement and
movement can evoke primitive fear. Unless you
understand this and train to overcome this fear, you
are likely to lose matches you should win.
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April 2015
TOURNAMENTS
ROGERS ROOKIE TOUR
April 19: U8, U10, U12, u14 Great West Fitness, Abbotsford; Register by email or in person (do not mail entry
forms); Contact Adrian Oziewicz 604-854-3284 or aoziewicz@yahoo.com
April 26: U8, U10, U12, u14, Richmond Tennis Club, Richmond; Contact Tanya Donaldson 604-273-3631 or
info@richmondtennisclub.com
FUTURE STARS TOUR U9 & U10
April 12: Global Tennis Academy, People’s Courts, Coquitlam; Contact Shayan Mirhosseini 604-939-2959 or
events@globaltennis.ca
April 25: Cedar Hill Recreation Centre; Contact Dean Gillis 250-475-7126 or dean.gillis@saanich.ca
April 26: Hollyburn Country Club, West Vancouver; Contact Steve Tseng 604-913-452 or
tennisevents@hollyburn.org
JUNIOR RANKINGS EVENTS
April 24 - 26: Abbotsford Spring Champs, Great West Fitness, Abbotsford; Contact Adrian Oziewicz at
aoziewicz@yahoo.com; Deadline April 20 @ 9 PM
JUNIOR RANKINGS EVENTS
April 26: Global Tennis Academy, People’s Courts Coquitlam; Contact Shayan Mirhosseini 604-220-9337 or
events@globaltennis.ca
JUNIOR INDOOR NATIONALS CHAMPIONSHIPS
April 6 - 12: U14 National Indoor Championships, Hollyburn Country Club, West Vancouver; By Invitation
April 5 -11: U18 National Indoor Championships, Mayfair Parkway/East, Markham, Ontario; By Invitation
U18 JUNIOR ITF EVENTS CANADA
April 11 - 18: U18 ITF G5, 33rd All Canadian Junior Championships, Ace Tennis Academy, Burlington,
Ontario
Do not hesitate to contact Elite Tennis Academy for more information on tournaments.
For more information on Tennis BC Tournaments, visit http://www.tennisbc.org/ (Tournaments tab).
For information and dates on USTA Tournaments taking place in the Pacific Northwest Division
(Washington, Oregon, Northern Idaho & Alaska) visit http://www.pnw.usta.com/.
For information and dates on ITF Tournaments, visit http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/home.aspx.
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