Sister act: Rising tennis stars serve notice Used to winning, teens look far into the future
By JOANNE PENHALE, Freelance June 26, 2010
www.montrealgazette.com/news/todays-paper/3204990.bin?size=620x400[/img]"My goal is to win the U.S. Open," says Francoise Abanda, 13, with her sister Elisabeth Abanda, 15 (right), at Jarry Tennis Centre. The tennis prodigies have immersed themselves in the sport in the hopes of turning pro .Photograph by: ALLEN MCINNIS THE GAZETTE, Freelance
For the Abanda sisters, volleying their way into the world of professional tennis is a family affair.
With the support of their single mother, Cecile, plus that of Tennis Canada and its Montreal-based national training centre, the sisters -Elisabeth, 15, and Francoise, 13 -have outpaced their competition. They won their age groups in Canada, capturing separate Orange Bowl tournaments -Francoise winning the Open Super 12 in Auray, France in 2009 -and more.
"I want to win my life through tennis," says Elisabeth, whose tournament in Waterloo next month could bring the family $25,000. She recently moved with her mom and sister into a 51/2 in Villeray, from her birthplace Ahunstic, so that she and Francoise could be closer to Uniprix Stadium, where they practise daily with nine other Canadian youngsters who have devoted their lives to the sport.
"My goal is to win the U.S. Open," Francoise declares.
She also plans to open a fashion line one day. "Louis Borfiga looks at Francoise Abanda, and says she's top-10 potential," says Louis-Philippe Dorais, communications director for Tennis Canada. "And top 10 is something special."
Borfiga, previously a top French coach responsible for tennis greats like Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and Gael Monfils, was recruited by Tennis Canada in 2006, when the organization decided it wanted to promote tennis participation in Canada.
"He said we needed a national training centre," Dorais said of Borfiga. And in the footsteps of other countries that take tennis seriously -including France, the U.S., Spain, Australia, and Russia -Canada's national training centre for youth aged 12 to 18 opened in Montreal in 2007. Elisabeth joined then and Francoise in 2009.
They'd already been on the courts for years. When Elisabeth was only 8, a friend of the Abanda family, tennis coach Jean-Claude Lemire, asked Elisabeth to partner up with his daughter, who wanted to learn the sport. It was a shift from the speed skating she and Francoise had been immersed in for two years. When Lemire's daughter threw in the towel after two weeks, Elisabeth stayed on.
While her sister was away practising, Francoise hit tennis balls against the wall of their residential complex in Ahunstic.
"I wanted to play so badly," recalls Francoise, now 5-foot-10. "I was making so much noise, the landlord was complaining."
Soon, Lemire was coaching both sisters, and, says mom Cecile, helping them out by giving them a good price and picking the girls up.
Their training has intensified at Tennis Canada, with a rigorous schedule of daily court time, fitness training, and schoolwork -a private teacher is on-site at the Uniprix Stadium, and the girls work through correspondence with Georges-Vanier high school, where Elisabeth used to attend.
"I miss going to school and meeting new people and having a social life like a normal teenager," says Elisabeth. "I have friends and they're always like, 'You're so lucky, you get to travel,' but they think it's vacation. It's not. We put a lot of money in it, so it's a serious thing," she says.
"Sometimes it's even stressful," Francoise adds. "Tennis Canada is investing a lot in us, so you can't just go and you know, choke. The tournaments are serious -everybody wants to win."
"Tennis Canada pays for everything," Francoise says, and the sisters begin itemizing its support, which averages to $100,000 a year per athlete, and is paid for by profits from the Rogers Cup and smaller tournaments Tennis Canada holds. It includes all the amenities and the variety of professionals who work with the girls at the training centre, plus travel and hotel costs, and a coach to travel to each international tournament each sister attends.
"But not the food, and the food is very expensive," Cecile adds. "Three meals a day at restaurants."
Mostly precariously employed since she came to Montreal from
Cameroon in 1991, Cecile has other costs including clothes, shoes, stringing racquets, and Tennis Canada's tuition is $ 5,000.
"She really believes in us, so she puts in the effort," Elisabeth says. Her dad, she says, lives elsewhere in Montreal. "He likes to watch, but he doesn't like to put the money on the table."
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