Metro

Saturday November 7, 2009

Bound for Barcelona

By Y.P. SIVAM


THE examinations are over and tennis junior S. Theiviya will be heading to Spain for a one-month training stint.

The stint is made possible by Allianz Malaysia, which has taken a keen interest in Theiviya’s budding tennis career since last year.

Budding talent: Theiviya will skip the SEA Games to attend a training camp in Spain.

In Spain, Theiviya will be based at the AP High Performance Tennis Camp in Barcelona. The camp is headed by Albert Portas, who was ranked 19th in the world in 2001. In his seven-year professional career, Portas had beaten some famous players like Leyton Hewitt and Juan Carlos Ferror.

He has retired from the professional circuit but is active in league events. Portas will be conducting the training and coaching personally, assisted by competent and qualified coaches.

Theiviya, who had limited herself to a handful of competitions to prepare for the PMR, is looking forward to the training stint.

“I have also decided to skip the SEA Games in Laos as I will be in Spain during the games,” said Theiviya, who will be leaving for Spain on Nov 16.

Fitness programme: Theiviya going through a regimental training session.

The 1.62m tall lass, who is a Form Three student at SMK Datuk Lokman, took part in four competitions this year. The first was the Fed Cup Pre-qualifying competition in Myanmar, in which Theiviya helped Malaysia finish tops to make it to the qualifying tournament in Australia. However, Malaysia only managed to finish 14th in the meet and did not qualify for the tournament proper.

In the Kuala Lumpur Schools Sports Council (MSSKL) tennis championships, Theiviya won the gold medal in the Under-15 singles. Later, in the Milo-Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) tennis championships, Theiviya played an important role in helping KL win a silver medal in the team event.

Although Theiviya skipped competitions, she has been training diligently under national coach S. Selvarajoo at the National Tennis Centre in Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur. Besides on-the-court sparring sessions, she also has to undergo a regimental fitness programme.

“There are match play sessions twice weekly. I also get a chance to spar with the national players. The sessions provide me ample scope to improve my game,” Theiviya said.

After her return on Dec 16, Theiviya will be taking part in the ECM-Libra inter-team championship.

Next year will be an important one for her. Besides representing Selangor in the Sukma, she will also be playing in the Under-18 age group in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior circuit.

Theiviya hopes to return from Spain a much more mature player, and is looking forward to making an impact in the ITF junior circuit.

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