Game on Searching for the Next Nick Kyrgios by Jo Davy
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theweeklyreview.com.au STONNINGTON & BOROONDARA JANUARY 21-27, 2015 PIMM’S TO YOU THE RISE OF THE GARDEN PARTY BIKINI DREAMS LOCAL DESIGNERS MAKE A SPLASH GAME ON SEARCHING FOR THE NEXT NICK KYRGIOS BY JO DAVY c e l e b r a t e s u m m e r s the sun rose on yet another icy Melbourne Tennis Australia’s high-performance training in each age group. Top-seeded Lin won her age group morning in early July, tennis fans woke to the academies were born of sweeping changes to its player without much trouble, but when asked whether the news that hope was on the horizon. It came development program introduced in 2005 by incoming victory established her as the best 14-year-old female in the form of lanky 19-year-old Canberran ON chief executive Craig Tiley. Athletes are assigned a player in the country, she scos. Nick Kyrgios, ranked 144th in the world, who T coach to lead their training and conditioning, and have “Nah, that was just that one tournament, we’re all at a Ahad overnight upset world No.1 Rafael Nadal to book a access to a team of medical, psychological, nutrition pretty similar level now,” she says. spot in the 2014 Wimbledon quarter-nals. and rehabilitation experts. ey are also provided Originally from China, Lin’s family relocated rst Kyrgios stunned the Spaniard, and the world, with with a teacher to facilitate their schooling (via distance to New Zealand, then to Adelaide where she spent her unshakeable condence and a powerhouse serve that education) and management while on tour. early years training under Peter Smith, who coached helped him notch up 37 aces – becoming the rst NAUGH Competition for the 87 places around the country is the young Lleyton Hewitt. She earned a spot in the s u male debutant to reach the nal eight at Wimbledon c erce and players must meet certain requirements in Adelaide national academy, before the family moved to in a decade. He lost his quarter-nal to eighth seed, their rank, tournament results and participation. Melbourne at the beginning of 2014. Canadian Milos Raonic, the next day, but the result M Vuradin was granted entry to the academy last year, Two European junior tours and thousands of hours m m aer winning a national junior tournament and making on court have honed Lin’s aggressive style of play, barely registered with fans back home, who were sensing TT an end to the winter of discontent for Australian tennis. it to the semi-nal of a European junior competition. but there’s work to be done on the psychological side e r e excitement was just as palpable at Tennis O e Sydenham teenager rst picked up a tennis of things. “I still get so nervous right before I go out Australia’s seven elite national academies around the SC racquet at the age of ve, played tournaments on the court … but then it goes away when I start to country, as the nation’s top junior players watched their throughout primary school and pushed for his parents concentrate,” she says. \ to enrol him at Maribyrnong Sports Academy instead of Admissions like these are a timely reminder that comrade catapulted onto the world stage. S Seventeen-year-old Omar Jasika from Clarinda, in joining friends at his local high school. although these players could probably break your Melbourne’s south-east, was among them. “I really wanted to pursue tennis because I feel like it’s rst service game, they are still teenagers. e recent “[Nick and I] pretty much grew up together, and it’s URE the only thing I can really express myself in … the day I sanctioning of top Australian junior Brad Mousley great to see him doing so well … I guess it makes you won my rst tournament, I thought to myself, ‘Yep, this further illustrates this point. realise it could happen for you,” he says. CT is what I want to do’,” he says. In August, Mousley copped a one-year ban Jasika is one of 17 young players enrolled in PI Jasika, who has been at the academy since he was 13, from competition aer testing positive for banned Melbourne Park’s high-performance academy hoping to says his early training mirrored that of a young Don substances during a routine drug test at a minor make the all-important transition from prodigy to pro. Bradman: hours on end spent hitting a ball against a tournament. A Tennis Australia tribunal found the At the time of going to print, he was poised to do just brick wall. 18-year-old had taken an ecstasy tablet at a party and that, a mere serve and volley away from winning a wild e eldest son of Bosnian immigrants, he began ruled that, although he wasn’t intending to cheat, he card entry for the Australian Open. playing national tournaments at nine, coached by his showed “signicant indierence” towards the sport’s Last year marked a solid 12 months in Australian tennis, with 13 male players clawing their way into the top 200 of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) rankings, Kyrgios among them at 52, just below Lleyton “THAT STUFF [ABOUT THE NEXT BIG THING] GETS Hewitt, who nished the year at 49. e last time this many Australian players made IN YOUR HEAD. YOU START THINKING EVERY the top 200 senior rankings, Jasika would have just celebrated his second birthday. But the much-maligned POINT HAS TO BE PERFECT” – omar jasika absence of any Australian grand-slam victories since Hewitt’s 2002 Wimbledon trophy has done little to dampen the teenager’s ambition. Aer all, he has every father, Mitch, who he says put a tennis racquet in his anti-doping code. Party drugs notwithstanding, the reason to ride high on his own achievements in 2014. hands, also at the age of ve. hours spent sliding up and down a baseline must have Two months aer Kyrgios’ Wimbledon upset, Jasika “I was just having fun, and people started saying I had an impact on their social lives. performed his own rare feat in New York, becoming potential so I played more and it just became a bit of a Lin says the long hours and distance education mean only the second player in Junior US Open history to win habit,” he says. she has not made many new friends since moving to both the singles and doubles titles. Unseeded, and up A killer forehand and strong variety in shots and Melbourne, but she seems unfazed: there are plenty of against the tournament’s h seed, France’s Quentin movement have emerged as some of the key weapons familiar faces at the academy and back in Adelaide. Halys, Jasika staged an incredible comeback to take the in Jasika’s arsenal. Liam Smith compares his charge’s Vuradin is using time out from a recent stress fracture singles title, surprising even himself. game style to that of Chilean Marcelo Ríos, who to reconnect with mates from school. “It’s not like I’m “I went in thinking I’d make it to the quarter-nals, coincidentally took home a junior US Open singles title grateful for the injury or anything, but it has been good maybe the semi-nals, but when I got to the end it in 1993 before reaching world No.1 ve years later. to catch up with people I haven’t seen in almost a year.” suddenly became about winning,” he says. “We’re looking to Ríos as a role model for how Omar What about Jasika, who, if you believe the hype, is With the historic double came the media hype, a should play,” says Smith. about to have even less time for pursuits outside tennis? social media fan base, and those three little words A jam-packed training schedule has him on court “I still hang out with my old mates when I’m free, but that carry with them the hopes of a once-great tennis for up to four hours a day as well as an hour in the gym don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. Tennis is nation: Next Big ing. It’s a lot of pressure to put on the under the watchful eyes of high-performance experts. my job,” he says, conceding that schoolies, the annual Nike-clad shoulders of a quiet teenager, ranked 567 in He is also studying VCE this year, which means at least Victorian school-leavers’ pilgrimage to Surfers Paradise, the world, but Jasika is surprisingly nonchalant about a few hours in the classroom. is probably o the agenda. the buzz surrounding his on-court achievements. e development pattern shared by many of the top It will all be worth it, though, for that elusive grand “at stu tends to get in your head sometimes; you TORY male tennis players suggests that Jasika is approaching a slam title. For the record, Jasika is gunning for an start thinking every practice and every point has to be COVER S crucial stage. Nadal, Federer, Murray and current world Australian Open title, Vuradin wants Wimbledon, and perfect … I just don’t think about it too much,” he says. No.1 Novak Djokovic had all broken into the top 100 Lin will settle for either. Coach Liam Smith echoes his sentiments, labelling ATP rankings by their 19th birthdays. In the meantime, they will have to be content with the win “a stepping stone” rather than a destination.