The ATA Academy players performed in Plano, San Antonio and College Station this past weekend, with players coming home as champions from all cities.

 

Jennings Inge, Hugh Cook, Tyler Anson and Georgia Wright each qualified to the next competitive division in Texas junior tennis with their performances this past weekend.

At the Plano Champ Major Zone, Tyler Anson and Georgia Wright both won their respective draws to qualify for the super champ division. Tyler, in the boys’ 12s, won five matches without dropping a set, taking the finals 6-2, 6-1.

“Tyler Anson brought a level of intensity and confidence to his matches this weekend that exceeds even what I've seen in some very high quality practices recently,” Coach Notis said. “As a result, his performances were truly devastating and dominating!”

 

Competing in the girls’ 12s, Georgia also stormed through the draw without giving up a set, winning the finals 7-6, 7-6.

“Georgia had a determination that I hadn’t seen out of her before,” Coach Schoenmakers said. “She had it in her mind that it was her time to qualify, and she completely dominated the tournament.”

At the San Antonio ZAT, Jennings Inge stormed through the boys’ 14s draw to qualify for the champ division.

“Jennings was all business this weekend.....he had only one objective and that was to win the tournament and that’s what he did,” Coach Martinez said.

Also in San Antonio, Hugh Cook reached the semifinals to qualify for the champ division.

“I’m really excited for Hugh’s progress and for him to champ up,” Coach Brandon said. “He has worked a lot harder the past few months and it paid off. Now I’m looking for Hugh to step up and work even harder so he can move up to the next level.”

In College Station at the Super Champ Major Zone, Frankie Colunga took the championship of his boys’ 18s B draw.

 

“This weekend was the best I’ve ever seen him play,” Coach Strecker said. “He was very composed and he competed extremely well.”

Also in College Station, Abigail Chiu secured a semifinal spot after taking down teammate Meredith Parks in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 7-6.

“I was really proud of Abi this tournament,” Coach Brandon said. “Going into the event after being sick all week, she never complained; she was a warrior all weekend long. I am very excited for her progress going forward.”

Coach Strecker’s takeaways from College Station:

“I think the weekend was very good, we did not win A draw championships, but we definitely competed well. I saw a lot of fight out of our players and that is the precursor to wins. You cannot win if you don't compete at the higher levels and we competed well. I think the next step is to bring that intensity daily to practice and make that the norm, which will then carry over to tournaments.

I was very pleased with how Molly and Courtney competed this weekend and how engaged they remained throughout their matches. Molly lost 6-0 the first set of the second match of the day and came back to win it, which shows a lot of resilience. Courtney came inches away from beating a girl top 30 in the state and lost in a very close 3rd set.

 

 

I watched Charlie come from behind on the semis of the consolation to win in a 3rd set, after a very long day. He looked exhausted, but managed to find that extra energy he needed to win that match and earn a spot in the final.

Overall though, like I mentioned, good weekend, we are moving in the right direction and I expect to see good results in the near future.”

Coach Kendall’s takeaways from the Plano CMZ:

“I was most impressed with our group of Girls 12s champs.  They all played extremely well and are amazing competitors.  We are going to see great things and a bunch of super champ players from that group really soon.

Avery Schiffman had a great tournament.  I really like the level of tennis I saw from her, and she just barely came up short against a tough player to have to play in the quarters that ended up winning the tournament. 
 
Austin Priess played solid tennis through to the semifinals where he ran into a tough opponent going down in 3 sets.  He made some great adjustments in his game and I think gained some clarity on what it will take to get into Supers. 
 
I also saw Smrithi play some really good tennis into the quarter as well.  She was striking the ball extremely well, playing consistent, and serving great.”

Coach Notis’ takeaways from the Plano CMZ:

“Despite a second round loss, Max played the best match Coach Davis or I have ever seen him play.  He hit the ball aggressively and managed himself extremely well. 
 
Brennan crashed the party at her first CMZ with an appearance in the consolation finals.  She competed extremely well both running down balls and attacking her opponents all weekend and showed that she really belongs at this level and may not be there for long.  

Keaton played and competed at a super champ level all weekend dominating three opponents on Saturday before going down in a hard fought and high level semifinal on Sunday.”

Takeaways from Coach Davis from the Plano CMZ:

“It comes down to this. We have a group of players in the champs that you are starting to see many of them having the courage to hit the ball like elite-level players regardless of the short-term outcome. That is when we have breakthroughs and start being factors in Texas tennis. 

Max did a good job of that and Noah did a great job of that in his third match.

I saw Tyler relentlessly coming back and playing the right way rather than being discouraged by losing a point. He did what Rafa says when he talks about the biggest hurdle in tennis is forgetting the last point.

Our kids are becoming courageous in that they are starting the right way regardless of the short term outcome.”