Two Yukoners excel at week-long Yellowknife tennis camp

Two of the Yukon's most talented junior tennis stars are playing that much better after attending a week-long camp in Yellowknife.

Two of the Yukon’s most talented junior tennis stars are playing that much better after attending a week-long camp in Yellowknife.

Sophia Flather, 15, and Kieran Halliday, 12, each had plenty of game and practice time at the Yellowknife Tennis Club’s High Performance Junior Tennis Camp, which concluded witha tournament held on the weekend.

“I’m pleased with how the week went,” said Stacy Lewis, the president of the Tennis Yukon Association. “I think they both improved pieces of their game technically and I think they both learned a lot from the tournament.”

The Yellowknife camp was held from last Monday to Friday. Participants were divided up into two groups, which included senior high performance and junior high performance.

The senior high performance group were mostly tennis players that were 15 or 16 years old. The older age level devoted a lot more practice time towards improving the tactical aspects of their game. These tactical considerations included when to be aggressive during a match.

The junior high performance group consisted of kids who were 11 to 14 years old. Players in the younger level devoted a great deal of time towards working on making deep shots and just overall ball placement.

The majority of the drills at the tennis camp were movement based and practices were cardio driven.

Some of the drills in both age levels involved returning a shot from around the service line, with an attacking approach shot. Both groups also had to do long ball rallies to develop that consistency.

The camp was taught by Matthew Taron, who teaches tennis at Brock University in Ontario.

Lewis said she was pleased with how the camp went.

“It went great,” she said. “They were not out of place; they were right where they should be with those kids, so that was really good.”

Halliday’s strong play allowed him to take part in both groups, which resulted in him practicing for six hours each day of the camp. 

The tournament provided both Yukoners with plenty of playing experience, featuring both singles and doubles competition. In the singles event, Halliday built on the success he had at the camp, placing second in his division. The final was a close match that ended with a 6-4, 6-3 score. He finished with a 2-2 record.

Flather, who competed in a very tough division, also was able to build on her success in the at the camp. She played four singles matches, but unfortunately finished with a 0-4 record.

The doubles competition was played on Saturday and featured two divisions. The players were mixed together to create a larger doubles draw and each competitor switched partners after a match over the course of two hours. 

At the end of the doubles event, the four players that recorded the most wins advanced to doubles final. 

Halliday was able to secure a spot in the top four and played with Yellowknife’s Tyler Comeau in the doubles final on Sunday morning.  The two made a good team, winning the final by the close score of 6-3, 3-6, 7-3.

Despite playing very well, Flather was unable to qualify for the top four in doubles competition.

Lewis said competing in the tournament was a great experience for Halliday and Flather.

“The match-play experience was excellent for Kieran and Sophia,” she said. “They learned a lot, and we have a good idea of what pieces of their games need attention. Hopefully we can do an exchange like this again next summer.”

Halliday said winning the doubles event was the highlight of the camp for him.

“It was good,” he said. “It was the first competition in tennis that I actually won.”

He said he was glad about attending the camp.

“It was fun and we learned a lot of stuff there.”

Halliday will take part in two tennis clinics next week and said he is more confident heading into them after playing in Yellowknife.