Pierre Lamarche

Eugenie Bouchard is nothing if not exceedingly ambitious. She is also constantly striving to improve and has said endless variations of, “I want to do better and to do more,” which she actually did say on Thursday following her 6-2, 6-4 loss to No. 4 seed Li Na in the Australian Open semifinals. But there was one moment after the match when the driven Bouchard finally seemed to actually give herself a pat on the back – well maybe half a pat. She was asked if she had exceeded her expectations considering that she was down a set point in the opening set of her first match against Chinese wild card Tang Hao Chen. “I wouldn’t say I exceeded my expectations,” she answered, “but I’m happy with how I did.”

A few weeks ago Irfan Shamasdin and I were the coaches for Team Ontario at the U14 Indoor Junior Canadian Nationals in Vancouver. This winter, when I realized that the U14 Nationals would be played at the same time and in the same city as Canada’s Davis Cup tie with Italy, bells started ringing! I suggested to Kartik Vyas at the Ontario Tennis Association (OTA) that we arrange for our players to experience Davis Cup. It turned out that Tennis Canada had the same idea. They decided to host the U14 Nationals at the UBC Tennis Centre which is next door to Thunderbird Stadium where the Davis Cup matches were to be played. Originally the U14 Nationals were to be hosted at Hollyburn Country Club; this was changed so that Hollyburn would host April 1-4, and UBC April 5-7.

Davis Cup is the BEST. There is no feeling like it and now for the first time Canada is in the last eight. Not only is Canada in the last eight, but we have a legitimate chance to make it to the top four. If ever you make it to the last four then the thinking is anything can happen. The reason anything can happen is because we have the big gun “Milos Raonic”.

Written by: Conor Casey __________ ***Conor Casey is a professional screenwriter, actor and part time tennis coach at the Boulevard Club.  His writing credits include

Written by: Pierre Lamarche __________ ***Pierre Lamarche has been an outspoken proponent of Canadian tennis and how the sport should have a major place in

Written by: Wayne Elderton __________ ***Wayne Elderton is acknowledged as one of Canada’s leading coaches. He is Head of Tennis Canada Coaching Development and Certification