When one thinks of lawn tennis the names Serena and Venus Williams, Pete Sampras, Rafael Nadal and quite a few non-Guyanese readily come to mind. However, in recent times, Guyanese world-rated junior player Sachia Vickery has been giving locals some hope and ever since her last visit home in 2008, many youths have been invigorated and enthused.
According to Coach Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan of the Park Players Tennis Club, many local youths have the talent to reach far but need the support and facilities to aid their advance in the sport.
On a visit to the club last Thursday, Stabroek Sport noticed scores of eager children being taken through the drills in various classes.
Founded in 2005, the club is in its seventh year of existence and the coach feels very satisfied with progress since the initiative got underway.
It all started as an introduction to the Lawn Tennis Summer Camps under then national coach Debbie Bunbury and Daly-Ramdyhan but quickly developed after many children showed great interest.
Bunbury has since migrated and Daly-Ramdyhan has taken up the challenge fully and now oversees the club with over 70 members and 50 plus active players. Over the years, most of the country’s top junior players in various categories have been a part of the Park players programme and the coach feels the foundation is proving good for Guyana’s lawn tennis.
Several top juniors, who are products of the club, are also playing in the senior category and are doing extremely well. Shauna Gentle, for example, is the National Women’s Champion and she is a product of the Park Players Tennis programme. Aruna Ramrattan, another product also, won the GBTI Open last year and, along with Nicola Ramdyhan, Aretta Dey, Gavin Lewis, Daniel Lopes and others, the club’s juniors are creating quite a stir on the tennis courts.
Jeremy Miller, a former junior champion and Nicholas Glasgow, are the assistant coaches at the club which only exists on support from the parents and without sponsors.
Coach Daly-Ramdyhan expressed her gratitude to the supportive parents and her former colleagues who lend a hand from time to time with supplies of balls, nets and other gears.
Telephone giant GT&T will also soon resurface the court under a previous arrangement with the Guyana Tennis Association.
A national Under-16 team is currently being prepared by Coach Daly-Ramdyhan and Miller for upcoming engagements, while four coaches have just qualified and have received their Level One Certificates – Miller, Nicholas Glasgow, Andre Lopes and Sandeep Chand.
This, Daly-Ramdyhan noted, is good for the sport as Guyana is well set to achieve great results internationally.
“We were fortunate to have Vickery with us in 2008 and some of our top juniors got a chance to see the level where they need to be after watching Sachia in the sessions and I must say that we have the talent to compete anywhere in the region. Last year, two of our girls won the under-14 doubles and the singles competition in St. Vincent and I know we have the talent to fly the Guyana flag internationally,” she added.
The tennis programme attracts children as young as four-years-old and sessions are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 15:30 and 18:00 hrs. The coach is encouraging more children to take up the discipline of lawn tennis and says it’s a great way for them to expend their energies.
