LITM Challenge Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles Event Puts a Bow on Summer 2021

THE LONG ISLAND

CHALLENGE

2021

LITM Challenge Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles Event Puts a Bow on Summer 2021

To close out the 2021 summer, Sportime Quogue hosted the third Long Island Tennis Magazine Challenge of the summer. The event was the final installment of this summer’s Challenge Series, and brought together 70-plus players for a Men’s Doubles and Women’s Doubles tournament, culminating with a viewing of the 2021 U.S. Open Women’s Singles final on the club’s pool deck.

The matches were spread out across the 22 outdoor courts at Sportime Quogue, beginning with pool play between the teams which led into knockout rounds. In between matches, players and spectators could watch others from the deck and enjoy the catered lunch provided. Towards the latter stages, a bar was set up for Happy Hour and the U.S. Open final between Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez was shown.

Off the court the atmosphere of the Challenge events are social and friendly, but the tennis on the court can get pretty competitive. This most recent tournament featured six divisions of play based on combined level.

In the Women’s 6.0-6.5 division, Anne McConville and Tanya Mattera entered the event with a simple strategy, but one that worked out.

“We had a very good, yet simple strategy,” McConville explained. “Try to put the ball onto the other side of the net, and get it past the opponent.”

Using that strategy and the chemistry they developed practicing

David Maher & Thiago Dualiby, the Men’s 9.0-9.5 Division Champions Maureen Ganiaris & Kalinka Maroones, the Women’s 8.0-8.5 Division Champions Arrwin Yip & Junji Nakamura, the Men’s 8.0-8.5 Division Champions

together for the last couple of weeks, McConville and Mattera came out victorious in their division.

“We played really well together,” said Mattera. “There were some great teams, but we were able to play well and stay positive throughout.”

Kim Onorato and Sarah Kull were the winners of the Women’s 7.0-7.5 division, and their success has them thinking of moving up a level at the next Challenge.

“No doubt we would play together again,” said Onorato. “And I think we’ll try to bump up to the 8.0-8.5 level for the next tournament. It was a great event and a beautiful day for tennis.”

The partnership between Maureen Ganiaris & Kalinka Maroones only began a couple of weeks ago, but the quick-developing chemistry catapulted them to the win in the Women’s 8.0-8.5 division.

“We just had fun, and played with no pressure,” said Maroones. “She was there for me and I was there for her. We’ll absolutely be back.”

“This is the first time we played together, and we just clicked,” added Ganiaris.

On the Men’s side of things, Matt Jacob and Stephen Weiss played their best tennis to come away with the title in the Men’s 7.0-7.5 division.

“Matt is a great partner and it was a great day out here,” said Weiss. “We played a few times before this, but it all came together today. The competition was tough, but at the end of the day we tried to do the same things that were working. Our consistency paid off. I was setting him up and he kept putting the ball away.” Arrwin Yip & Junji Nakamura defended their title from earlier this summer in the Men’s 8.0-8.5 division by claiming the championship on Saturday.

The duo got off to a slow start in pool play, but found their rhythm as the tournament went on.

“We lost our first match, but once we got going things started to pick up for us,” said Nakamura. “We play with each other a lot and I think that was the key.

Yip added:

“It was a great time. The weather was perfect, and the amenities and set up was fantastic. This is our second time playing and our second time winning, so we’re going to keep coming back until we lose. The food, the people and the competition on beautiful courts: It’s always a great

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Kim Onorato and Sarah Kull, the Women’s 7.0-7.5 Division Champions Matt Jacob and Stephen Weiss, the Men’s 7.0-7.5 Division Champions Anne McConville and Tanya Mattera, the Women’s 6.0-6.5 Division Champions

time here.”

Unlike the 8.0-8.5 winners, David Maher & Thiago Dualiby paired up for the first time and found their form as a duo to win the 9.0-9.5 division.

“We live in the same house, but this was our first time playing together,” said Mar. “It was a bit rough in the beginning, I shanked a few balls and got a bit frustrated, but towards the end it was easy sailing.”

The key for them was improving as the day went on, and figuring out what strategies worked for them against the competition.

“We had to make adjustments. Things weren’t going the way we wanted them to go in the beginning, but we kept trying to make them play a few more balls, and I think we improved with each match,” added Dulaiby. “In the finals, we did very well. It was our best match.”

The competition and camaraderie of the Long Island Tennis Magazine Challenge series make the event series special, and we are excited to see the events continue to grow yearto-year.

We look forward to putting more events together as we close out 2021, and look for an even more expansive LITM Challenge Series in 2022.

“With the help of our great sponsors, we were able to make each event this summer special in its own way. At the first event, we had professional chefs making hot food for lunch, at the second event we had a charitable component for kids with special needs, and the third event the bar opened while screening the U.S Open Women’s final,” said the tournament’s founder David Sickmen. “Every event feature catered food and happy hour, all of this combines to make what we do stand out and

try to keep building the event series as something players look forward to annually. We’ve always found it important for the community to work together and we thank the players that regularly join us, and we look forward to seeing everyone at the next event.”

The LITM Challenge Series was made possible due to the support of all the players, plus our sponsors: BTIG, Chris Savino, Compass, Cowen, inPhorm, KeyBanc Capital Markets, L’Antista, Plado Tasting Bar, Sportime/John McEnroe Tennis Academy, Town Bagel, Virtu Financial, Vite Vinosteria and USTA Eastern.

LITM CHALLENGE SPONSORS

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MAGAZINE

Teenage Dream

Emma Raducanu’s Rise to Stardom

By Brian Coleman

As Emma Raducanu fired an ace, her third of the match, past Leylah Fernandez inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, she dropped her racket and put her hands over her face in disbelief.

The 18-year-old girl from Great Britain was now a U.S. Open champion after compiling a dream-like run in New York, becoming the first British woman to win a Slam title in nearly five decades.

“It's an absolute dream," said Raducanu. "I've always dreamed of winning a Grand Slam. You just say these things. You say, 'I want to win a Grand Slam.' But to have the belief I did, and actually executing, winning a Grand Slam, I can't believe it."

Raducanu’s stay in New York was longer than the typical fortnight that most champions spend at the majors. Her journey started the week prior to the commencement of the main draw: qualifying. Raducanu had to win three qualifying matches in a row just to earn a spot in the main draw.

“As for this three weeks in New York, I would say having such a supportive team, the LTA, my agent, and everyone back home watching on TV, thank you so much for your support over the years,” she said. “Thank you for making me feel so at home from my first qualifying match, you have spurred me on in some difficult moments.”

Seemingly overnight, Raducanu was a global superstar. She made the usual rounds that players do after a major victory, making appearances on morning talk shows and partaking in countless photo shoots. Just days after her win, Raducanu was also invited to the Met Gala, where she mingled with the biggest names in fashion, pop culture and sports. Recently, she was at the movie premier for the newest James Bond film.

Her social media pages have jumpred to more than 2 million followers, and sports apparel companies and other brands are foaming at the mouth hoping to land Raducanu and have her promote their products. Marketing guru Mark Borkowski says that she could potentially be the first billion dollar female athlete.

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"This is the start of something epic. She is a billion-dollar girl, no doubt about it,” he said. “She is the real deal. It’s not just that she plays extraordinary tennis, it’s also her background, her ethnicity, her freedom of spirit. People also love the fact that she is vulnerable, but laughs the pressures away.”

It’s a truly meteoric rise for a girl who had temporarily put tennis on hold so she could focus on her academics during the pandemic. In fact, last month, she completed her studies at the famed Newstead Wood School in Orpington, England, where she received the highest grades possible in Math and Economics.

While her on-court tennis skills, including a blistering two-handed backhand, are to be marveled at, perhaps the most impressive thing about Raducanu is her unflappable confidence and composure. Teenagers aren’t supposed to win major titles without dropping sets, and they aren’t supposed to seem unfazed competing in New York and on the biggest stage. But here she was in Queens in front of tens of thousands of spectators, and millions more watching on television, delivering a master class performance.

Just a couple of months before, Raducanu burst onto the scene at Wimbledon, where she reached the fourth round as a Wild Card. She had never played at a WTA Tour event prior to Wimbledon, but won three main draw matches at the tournament in her home country. But in her fourth-round match against Ajla Tomljanovic, she began to have problems breathing and felt dizzy, forcing her to retire from the match.

Her retirement was met with a mixed reaction, with some claiming she was

Photo credit: Darren Carroll/USTA

overwhelmed by the moment and could not handle the pressure. Whatever the reason was, the teenager put any notion that pressure was too much for her to bed with her run in New York.

That unwavering poise comes from how she was raised, she says. Born in Toronto, Canada to a Romanian father and Chinese mother, Raducanu and her family moved to London when she was just two-years-old. Although her parents were unable to join her in New York and witness her accomplishment in person, they were certainly there in spirit.

“I think the confidence comes from just inner belief,” Raducanu said in Vogue. “My mom comes from a Chinese background, they have very good self-belief. It’s not necessarily about telling everyone how good you are, but it’s about believing it within yourself. I really respect that about the culture.”

She added:

“I think that the calmness and the mental strength definitely comes from my upbringing. I think my parents have both instilled in me from a very young age to definitely have a positive attitude on court, because when I was younger, it was definitely an absolute no-go if I had any sort of bad attitude. So from a young age, I definitely learned that, and it’s followed me until now.”

In addition to playing tennis as a kid, Raducanu also did ballet, horse riding, swimming, go-carting and motocross, contributing to forming a well-rounded person and athlete. This, coupled with her focus on academics, has helped her avoid the tennis burnout many junior players face when their lives are solely dedicated to the sport.

Raducanu’s composure allowed her to be successful on the tennis court, and it’s her charming demeanor that has transformed her into a global icon almost instantly. After her win, she delivered a message in Mandarin to her friends and family in China, thanking them for their support.

The next step for Raducanu now is to manage her stardom and fame which she now has to deal with. It can be a daunting task to handle the pressure of maintaining an image while remaining successful on court, and as we have seen over the past year, the mental health of athletes and the pressures they face can take a toll on a person.

But Raducanu seems to be taking everything that comes her way in stride, and enjoying the fruits of her labor rather than running from them.

“I don’t feel absolutely any pressure,” she said. “I’m still only 18years-old. I’m just having a free swing at anything that comes my way. That’s how I faced every match here in the States. It got me this trophy, so I don’t think I should change anything.”

Brian Coleman is the Senior Editor for Long Island Tennis Magazine. He may be reached at brianc@usptennis.com.

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