Year 11 tennis player Vivian Yang recently won the ITF Junior Auckland Indoor Tennis Competition in Auckland. She won the Singles title and made it through to the semi-final of the Doubles. Here she shares her story.
By Vivian Yang
This is my third year playing the Auckland Indoors ITF. It was always a pleasure competing with a New Zealand flag next to my name, and I am really proud of myself taking the win 2 years in a row now, really thankful for my team that has always been supporting me, and my school Westlake Girls for the flexibility I have during tournaments.
It’s definitely hard coming out of lockdown twice after all the international travel we used to do. I got really caught up from the first lockdown physically, not the fitness level I needed to be. Mentally wasn’t feeling the best either and I went through some struggles that I’ve never faced before. However, my team and I had several conversations about the coming up tournaments in NZ, and some contrappose training due to my performance from the first lockdown. I was actually really happy with the result coming out of the second lockdown. I knew what I wanted to achieve throughout the year, even though this is an extremely difficult year to go through. I knew what I should be expecting for national tournaments, and adapting to the fact that training blocks are going to be a lot longer and harder.
I tried to look at it in a good way. Less tournaments equals a lot more time on schoolwork. I think it’s a great opportunity for me to catch up on lots of the stuff I’ve missed in term 1. Really appreciate all the support and cooperation that all of the teachers have given me, it really made it a lot easier for me.
Thanks for all the support Westlake has been giving me, and all the effort my team has put in me. Thanks for Tennis New Zealand for arranging many series of tournaments nationally. Thanks for my tennis coach Matthew Alexander and my fitness coach Emily Fanning for all the training we’ve been doing. And a huge thanks to myself for the hard work and discipline I’ve committed for my tennis career!