FULL-TIME NATIONAL TENNIS CENTRE
In September 2007, Tennis Canada opened its doors to a full-time National Tennis Centre (NTC) for the first time.
Under the leadership of world renowned coach Louis Borfiga, who ran a similar program for the French Tennis Federation, identified talent with an average age of 13-17 is provided with the training, coaching and resources necessary to succeed at the top levels of the sport. Operating national training centres is recognized as an international best practice where players can be regrouped in one location to hone their technical, physical and tactical fundamentals, garner top level international competitive experiences, manage life on the junior circuit as a precursor to the professional tours, and develop team identity and values to represent Canada on the international stage.
To ensure the success of the program:
- Tennis Canada has recruited internationally renowned tennis coaches, physiotherapists and tutors to provide athletes with qualified staff to support them in all aspects of their development.
- All of the amenities are state-of-the-art, including a fully-equipped gym, 12 indoor and 12 outdoor hard courts and four indoor clay courts. NTC players possess all resources necessary to succeed at the sport’s highest level.
2017 marked the tenth year of the NTC.
Since it’s inauguration, Borfiga’s expertise is already producing promising results and has placed Canada amongst the world’s top tennis nations.
Within the last five years:
- NTC players have captured four junior Grand Slam singles titles, an accomplishment never before realized in Canadian tennis history.
- Canadian players have reached nine Grand Slam finals, seven in juniors and two at the professional level.
- Two Canadian players, Milos Raonic and Eugenie Bouchard, have also been ranked in the Top 5 of their respective tours.
There is still a lot of work ahead, but the future is bright for Canadian tennis.
REGIONAL TRAINING CENTRES
In addition to the National Tennis Centre in Montreal, four Regional Training Centres have been created in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary to act as regrouping centres for promising U14 talent in those regions. The centres are supplementary training programs designed to support club leaders, personal coaches and parents to enrich the current training and competitive environment for our top performing athletes. These four programs act as feeder systems into the full-time NTC.
Montreal Full-Time National Tennis Centre
Ruben Alcantara: National coach
André Barette: Academic Consultant
Louis Borfiga: Vice-President, High Performance
Sylvain Bruneau: National coach
Simon Larose: National coach
Martin Laurendeau: National coach
Guillaume Marx: National coach
André Parent: National Fitness coach
Nicolas Perrotte: National Fitness coach
Daniel Racine: National Training Centre Driver
Virginie Tremblay: National Fitness coach
Toronto Regional Training Centre
Cadence Brace
Kayla Cross
Anastasia Kavounov
Dharani Niroshan
Scarlett Nicholson
Marina Stakusic
Aleksandar Mitric
Sasha Rozin
Matthew Overvelde
Coaches:
André Labelle – Head Coach
Heidi El Tabakh – National Coach / Fed Cup Captain
Bogdan Grygorenko
Keith Mayerson
Clément Golliet – Fitness coach
Sports Science team:
Dr. Michael Clarfield (Sports Medicine)
Marlene Nobrega (Physiotherapist)
Vancouver Regional Training Centre
Alexandra Vagramov
Leena Bennetto
Chloe Yoo
Danielle Tuhten
Henry Ren
Aron Pilbart
Lachlan Robertson
Ella Nielsen
Stewart Aronson
Isabelle Asenov
Danny Yassine
Danny Bao
Gabriella Lindgren
Diana Craciun
Oded Jacob – Head Coach
Roberto Brogin
Kamil Pajkowski
Sergey Nazarov – Part-time Fitness Coach
Calgary Regional Training Centre
Nawal Youssef
Keegan Rice
Alexia Jacobs
Alan Mackin – Head Coach
Michael Souster – Fitness coach