I am working as a freelance reporter for Tennis Manitoba over this summer. This was the first article I wrote spotlighting a junior tournament here in Winnipeg. The organizer has some interesting views on tennis here...
“It was excellent. High participation, lots of younger players which is always the right way to start,” he said.
The tournament, which has been running for nearly a decade, featured under-10, under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18 competitions for both singles and doubles in boys. The same went for the girls save for the under-16 category, which had to be cancelled because of a lack of participation.
Despite this setback, the tournament featured 73 entrants, an impressive tally which is above average for tournaments around this time of year according to Kylar.
The event offered valuable qualifying points towards the provincial standings, which can eventually be used to gain entrance into the Prairie Regionals featuring the top four players each from Manitoba and Saskatchewan for the different age ranges. From there, the top 3 overall will move on to the prestigious national championships.
The two big winners from this year’s event were Kevin Kylar, who won the under-16 title as well as the under-18 for both singles and doubles with partner Mickey Rogers and Earinpreet Hirkewal who won the under-12 and under-14 championships.
Kylar said the players were amongst Manitoba’s premier up and comers.
“Well Kevin is my son so I know a lot about him. He is ranked number one in under-16 and number three in under-18. They haven’t updated the national standings but I’m sure he would move into the top 20 there,” he said.
The other kid [Hirkewal] is also really good. He’s ranked number one provincially in both the categories he won so he is definitely playing well to,” he added.
Kylar said that despite the success of his tournament, he did have some concerns about junior tennis in our province.
“Well, I think the system isn’t perfect yet. There is too much of a discrepancy between the levels they’re playing at and therefore the marginal ones are hesitant to enter unless you give them a chance to get in and not get clobbered,” he said
“Overall tennis is up but competitive junior tennis is down,” he added.
Despite this, Kylar said the number of young people he sees playing the game is a definite plus and with numbers like we saw at his tournament, the sport may well be on the rise here in Manitoba.
For his part, Kylar said that while it may not be as competitive, participation in tennis is still strong.
“I’m a tennis pro and I see close to 200 kids participating in the winter lessons. There’s lots of kids playing for sure,” he said.
Next up for the juniors was the World of Water Junior Open at Kildonan Tennis Club, which took place this weekend, and the Tuxedo Junior Open happening from June 10-14.
Despite this, Kylar said the number of young people he sees playing the game is a definite plus and with numbers like we saw at his tournament, the sport may well be on the rise here in Manitoba.
For his part, Kylar said that while it may not be as competitive, participation in tennis is still strong.
“I’m a tennis pro and I see close to 200 kids participating in the winter lessons. There’s lots of kids playing for sure,” he said.
Next up for the juniors was the World of Water Junior Open at Kildonan Tennis Club, which took place this weekend, and the Tuxedo Junior Open happening from June 10-14.
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