SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER

12 October 2023

Academy News

Alan & Jo giving their thoughts on the past month at UT:

NEW PLAYERS

It’s been a busy first month at Unique Tennis with the addition of the RPDC programme starting. We welcome the following players starting their programmes with us this year.

Ana Senic
Sahara Baptiste
Megan Coliof
Sophia Fisk
Ajax Millwood
Etienne Lamb
Theodore Lee
Eva Senic

We are also seeing the Monday & Thursday after school RPDC squads going from strength to strength with both days reaching capacity, which is great to see. We look forward to seeing how all the players develop over the coming months.

NEW FULL TIME PLAYER

MILADA SUCHKOVA

Milada has been an access player at Unique Tennis for over a year, however at the start of this month has joined us on a full time basis. With her love of the game, determination to improve and her work ethic we have no doubt she will improve quickly. Welcome Milada!

PLAYERS CORNER

ANA SENIC
Unique Tennis is unique for its teamwork, inclusivity and transparency. Unique Tennis is a team that shares the same values and provides opportunities as well as resources that are equal to all players. Dedicated coaches collaborate and work together to suit each players needs and helps them improve. Days are filled with immense knowledge that is being passed on to the players.
The atmosphere at Unique tennis is great. I enjoy every minute spent with the coaches and my friends. I feel respected and valued and this helps boost my confidence.

I love it at UT because I’m being mentally and physically challenged and pushed. I always feel like I’m being pushed out of my comfort zone. I feel like I give 120% of myself. I recognise now that giving my maximum is all that is acceptable and that the extra 20% really matters.

The coaches take time to explain players mistakes and go over and above to explain consequences of doing or not doing certain things. The coaches prompt us to think which is a great way to learn and memorise the game.

The Unique Tennis team is very professional and committed. It is great to see the coaches give themselves in full during squads. The coaches always motivate us and lead by example. The squads are filled with energy which boosts my energy levels.

COACHING TEAM

JAYSON MBOGORO
Jayson was one of the players on the full time programme at Unique Tennis and an aspiring professional player, unfortunately due to a severe injury he was no longer able to pursue this ambition. He played several junior tournaments around the world at ITF level.

This has given him an extensive experience of what it takes being on the road competing and what it takes to play internationally. Through these tournaments and experiences, he has learnt the amount of hard work, dedication and mental toughness it takes to play this sport and he feels this is important for him to be able to connect with other players.

He is now a level 1 coach who is looking to take his tennis knowledge to the top. Jayson will be coming in and hitting during squads and shadowing some of the coaches as well as supervising the classroom, making sure everyone is studying hard and keeping on top of their work.

PLAYER

RESULTS

Megan Coliof & Sahara

Baptiste both got invited to the LTA’s NAGP weekend at Loughborough in September. Nice to see two of our players battling it out in the final with Megan coming out on top this time around. The first set of this match only taking 1hr45mins!!!

Sophia Fisk

Lots of competitions over the summer months and although she only started with us in September this year we thought it would notable to mention Sophia Fisk winning the U11 G3 at Framingham over the summer. Well done Sophia!

Andrian Caspa

Andrian Caspa is another player who joined us in September. Here he is looking very happy with his first yellow ball tournament victory over the summer. Keep up the good work.

Sahara Baptiste

Sahara Baptiste competing in the Champions Bowl in Croatia. This is an event in which you earn your place through winning the champions bowl event in your home country. Sahara putting up a good showing playing under the British flag against players from all over Europe.

Ria Ferguson

Ria kept up her good run of results and performances over the summer, competing loads and getting lots of matches under her belt. Her best results coming at Harpenden where she won the U18 G3 and lost narrowly in the final of the Women’s G3. She’s now focussing on playing some ITF events to keep improving her junior World Ranking.

ITF/TE Trips

The Unique tennis Team will again be looking at taking both some ITF trips and TE trips over the Winter months. We will put a plan in place and email out some potential dates and tournaments over the next month or so.