Wheelchair Tennis - News / Upcoming Events

News/Upcoming Events

Wheelchair Tennis Instructor Workshop

If you are interested in working with wheelchair players, then this course is for you!

Please mark June 9 in your calendars as this workshop will take place then at the University of Toronto - Scarborough.

The course will run from 9 am - 4 pm. Cost is only $10.

Anyone can take this course but only instructors or coaches already certified by Tennis Canada will receive the official certificate upon completion of the course.

To register (or get all of the details of the event), please contact Dustin Sexton at UTSC at 416.805.8954 or by e-mail at tennis@utsc.utoronto.ca

Registration deadline is May 25.

Joel Dembe Blogs from Guadalajara

Hello Everyone,

It seems only fitting that my first blog of 2012 comes again directly from Guadalajara, Mexico which was my last event of 2011. Now that I'm back here, I can tell you that the atmosphere is completely different. I am no longer staying in a secure village with armed forces all around. I'm directly within the city now, which means there is a lot more to do and see, but I also have to be pretty careful! There is less of a "celebratory" feeling here, even though most of the posters and road signs still utilize the Pan-Am logos. I definitely feel like I'm risking my life crossing streets here. Seriously Mexico, you people need pedestrian cross-walks.

So, what have I been up to since you all last heard from me? I spent all of January training like a madman in preparation for this year. Since it's a Paralympic year, I felt I need to really improve my game and I definitely feel like I have way more on-court awareness simply because of how much I played in January. I trained with Kai Schrameyer, our National Development Coach about 4 times a week. As a former world #1 player, Kai pushed me hard to make the right shots. Being able to rally and compete against a player of Kai's calibre was truly beneficial. I was always pushed harder by Kai and was definitely not allowed to slack off...ever. I also trained with Tracy Bennett, another great coach at Grant Connell Tennis Club 4 times a week as well. Both coaches kept me on toes and lectured me any time they felt my effort wasn't 110%. Overall, it was truly a positive experience for me, and each coach I worked with noticed an improvement on court.

Matches start tomorrow - the tournament has players from Mexico, Chile, France, United States, and Brazil. It's definitely going to be competitive. Later this month, we have the World Team Cup Regional Qualifications in Mexico City, so I'll be taking videos of the
Chilean team, easily our biggest rival.

Ok - that's it for now. I'm going to sign autographs at a local mall here to promote the tournament. There is also a high likelihood that I will be consuming tacos as well.

Until next time,

Joel

TENNIS CANADA WHEELCHAIR TENNIS TEAM HOSTS HIGH PERFORMANCE TRAINING CAMP

TORONTO, Jan 30, 2012 – as a kick off to the 2012 tournament season Tennis Canada hosted a training camp for the National High Performance wheelchair tennis team at the Rexall Centre, Centre of Excellence in Toronto. Objective of the camps was to bring together the top Canadian players for on court training sessions as well a fitness evaluation at the start of the Pre-Paralympic tennis season. For some of the players who played the Australian circuit down under, the season is already under way. For the rest of the team the season kicks off in Feb/March with tournaments in Mexico, Arizona and Windsor, ON. The men’s team will attempt to qualify for this year’s World Team Cup in Seoul, South Korea. They will face tough opponents at the WTC regional qualifier in the Latin America qualifiers in Mexico City from Feb 20 -24.

“It was great to be able to have a regrouping with the team as well as their coaches in order to assess the work that has been done in the off season,” said Director of Wheelchair Tennis, Janet Petras.

Besides 2 full days of on court sessions with a heavy focus on match play, Tennis Canada Fitness Consultant Dennis Lindsay conducted fitness evaluations with each of the players and reviewed their individual fitness plans for the upcoming season with them.

Kelly Parr, Athlete Services Coordinator made sure the players had the therapeutic support during the intense weekend

“For some of our players, the next four months will be crucial as the Paralympic qualification period kicks into high gear,” says National High Performance coach Christian Gingras. “It’s great to see that the players put in the hard work over the winter months. I am especially pleased to see Sarah Hunter back on court again.”

Hunter had been injury plagued for a large part of the 2011 season and is hoping to recover in time to be able to re-enter the tournament circuit in March.

Tennis Canada National High Performance team joined by players' coaches
and Bob Brett, High Performance Consultant, Tennis Canada

DEMBE, LUKER & CHOKYU FINISH AT HEAD OF 2011 SCOTIABANK CANADIAN CIRCUIT STANDINGS

Vancouver, November 30, 2011 – Joel Dembe from Toronto solidified his outstanding season performance by finishing at the head of the 2011 Scotiabank Canadian Circuit Standings. Currently ranked No. 47 in the world on the ITF Wheelchair Rankings, Dembe replaces last year’s top ranked player Lee Carter as No.1. Carter, who only played the Birmingham National Championships in Ottawa this year where he reached the final, falls to No. 3.

Ranked No. 2 this year, Philiipe Bedard from Montreal showed his strongest performance of the year at the PoCoMo Open in Coquitlam, BC. Bedard is currently ranked No. 102 in the world

Eric Gilbert (Quebec), Jerome Bouvier (British Columbia) and Yann Mathieu (Quebec), who announced his retirement from competition tennis this year, occupy the No. 4-6 positions respectively.

In the quad division, Gary Luker from Ancaster, Ontario, tops the field over rival Adrian Dieleman (Hamilton, Ontario). Last year’s Scotiabank Circuit Champion Sarah Hunter from Surrey, BC was forced out of action due to injury for most of the year. Coming at No. 3 is Mika Ishikawa from Vancouver who has shown tremendous progress this season.

Yuka Chokyu from Vancouver defended her title in the women’s field.

The Scotiabank Canadian Circuit is a series of seven ITF sanctioned events in Canada and the Birmingham National Wheelchair Championships. The series is made of tournaments in Windsor (Ontario), St Therese (Quebec), Mississauga (Ontario), Vancouver, Coquitlam (BC), two events in Montreal and the Birmingham National Wheelchair Championships (Ottawa).