Tennis, Creative

For the next two weeks all registered PRO Academy players will have a piece of homework to complete each day as part of their training in the program. With the Academy theme being 'Starting the Point' there is a great emphasis on the serve and return and in terms of the serve it all starts with a good ball toss. Players must complete a set of 50 practice ball tosses each night for the next two weeks with a target and ball.

Bryson Tye (pictured) was a two time winner on the weekend at the Crossland Doubles Challenge. In the boys U16 Doubles he teamed up with fellow Barrie player Mike Meissner winning all their matches without losing more than a game in each and then followed up this performance in the U16 Mixed Doubles with Briahn Guthrie where they did the same thing not losing a match on the road to victory.

Milos Raonic of Thornhill won his 3rd ATP event, second of the year and defended his San Jose title with a convincing 7-6, 6-2 win over Dennis Istomin. Milos is off to an 11-1 start this year and already has two titles under his belt.

Owen Miller lines up a backhand on one of the 3/4 courts at the precisely the same time that his little brother Wes lines up a forehand on one of the half courts at BNWT's Little League on Saturday Feb 11th. The brothers are part of group of players who compete weekly in both half and 3/4 court tennis.

Navah Ball prepares for the ball in SUPERLEAGUE action at BNWT. Navah who is part of TEAM Djokovic won both her singles and doubles matches on route to a 46-10 win over TEAM Murray. Meanwhile led by captain Hannah Alimajstorovic TEAM Federer defeated TEAM Nadal 41-19. For all the scores click here.

On February 8th Bell launched a campaign to raise awareness for Mental Illness. You probably saw some of the ads featuring spokesperson Clara Hughes. A one hour feature aired on CTV called Darkness and Hope, it featured Clara and other athletes including Micheal Landsberg, the host of 'Off the record'.

Cole Ciccone and father Paul pictured here in June at the Penncorp Classic played a classic of their own at the last BNWT Sat Singles Challenge. After winning their respective quarter and semi-final matches they met in the final and played a match that went the distance. In the end it was the teacher who had one more trick up his sleeve as Paul edged out his son Cole 8-7 and 9-7 in the tiebreaker.

The big serving American Mardy Fish is featured in ESPN's Sport Science video on the serve. Click here to watch the video. Notice the emphasis on ball toss location as an integral component to serving successfully and with power.

Play to improve. You have heard this before if you are a Simcoe Tennis athlete. I remember when I first heard this I took it to the extreme. I thought playing to improve meant trying to hit every ball as if it was going to be a winner regardless of the position I was in.

Joshua Kim serves during Little League action at BNWT on Saturday afternoon. The newly revamped Little League which plays out Saturday afternoons at 4.00pm just before SUPERLEAGUE now features two large 3/4 courts as well as 4 mini courts.