Vancouver, BC – During the first weekend of the 2019 Leith Wheeler Stanley Park Open, July 6-7, the U10 BC-Alberta Interprovincial Invitational Tournament took place. This marked the first-ever event that U10 girls and boys competed against other U10 players in singles and doubles using a regular yellow ball on a full-sized tennis court.
Normally, U10 competitions are played with a lighter green dot ball in a timed-match or short-set format. When players move into the U12 category, they are introduced to the regular yellow ball, regular scoring and a full-court, oftentimes against older players as well. This event was a great opportunity to bridge the gap between the otherwise big step between U10 competitions and U12 competitions.
Leading up to the weekend, a 3-day U10 BC-Alberta Interprovincial Camp took place at the Stanley Park Tennis Courts. It was the first time this camp was hosted at the LWSPO. The intention of this was camp to re-group the top U10 girls and boys on the West Coast and to create a diverse training opportunity.
The camp was led by Tennis Canada’s Director of U10 Tennis Development, Coach Séverine Tamborero, and Tennis BC’s Director of High Performance, Sarah Kadi. The coaches from Alberta included Kristina Sanjevic, the Technical Manager, High Performance & Junior Player Development at Tennis Albert and Marvin Hinds, Senior Tennis Professional at The Royal Glenora Club in Edmonton. Team BC’s Coaches included Sarah Kadi and Tom MacLean (from The Tennis Centres).
The camp included over 18 hours of multi-sport and tennis training time, in addition to the weekend’s match play. The camp was open to girls and boys, with 17 kids in total, including 7 girls and 10 boys. The athletes were 8-10 years of age.
Tennis BC, Tennis Alberta and Tennis Canada will continue to collaborate in the future to create more opportunities such as this one, with the goal of having four per year. The next U10 regrouping scheduled to take place in October. In the future, these U10 re-groupings will aim to also include regional development centre from the USTA.