Canadian Tennis Pros, Raonic and Bouchard Lead Tennis Clinic with Kids for Mini Rogers Cup
Rogers Cup presented by National Bank is a professional tennis tournament organized by Tennis Canada. The best players from around the world have demonstrated their skills on Canadian courts since 1881. Tennis enthusiasts may already know this but for those novice tennis fans out there here is a bit of history you can boast about when you are chatting about the Rogers Cup with your neighbours. Only Wimbledon and the US Open have longer histories than the Rogers Cup and it’s also been sanctioned by the tennis world to be one of the best-run tournaments on the Tour. If you want to sound even more tennis savy, here’s a another fast fact – National Bank offers over $3 million in prize money and the Rogers Cup draws the biggest stars in tennis year after year.
Did someone say biggest stars in tennis? It just so happens that two big Canadian tennis pros where in Toronto on July 22nd. Milos Raonic and Eugenie “Genie” Bouchard, who are set to play in the Rogers Cup in a few weeks, shared their love of the sport by leading a Tennis Clinic at HTO Park and On the Scene Network (OTSN) was there! Raonic and Bouchard led the tennis clinic in celebration of Mini Rogers Cup which is a kid’s tournament that provides young tennis stars the chance for their own title and to be recognized on-site during Rogers Cup this August. The one-hour tennis clinic was hosted by Sportsnet’s Evanka Osmak and Ken Reid and took place on a tennis court atop a barge docked on Lake Ontario. Raonic and Bouchard shared their skills and experience of tennis with kids from local tennis clubs and demonstrated their tips and tricks of tennis on the courts. Mini Rogers Cup is part of Rogers’s commitment to grassroots tennis and growing the game along with partner Tennis Canada. The event also allowed opportunities for fans to ask questions and receive autographed tennis balls, shirts and more.
Milos Raonic, a 24-year old Montenegro-born athlete grew up in Thornhill, Ontario from a very young age. At the age of nine, Milos began playing tennis and played his first tennis tournament when he was 10 in Toronto. When he was 16, he grew into one of Canada’s top juniors and was invited to be one of the first to join Tennis Canada’s National Training Centre in Montreal. Milos spent three years training with Canada’s top juniors in Montreal. In 2008, Raonic turned pro and he became one of three Canadians to reach the fourth round at a Grand Slam championship. He was named as Newcomer of the Year in the 2011 ATP World Tour Awards after jumping from No. 156 in the Emirates ATP Rankings at the start of the season to No. 31 on 14 November 2011. Milos has won five ATP World Tour titles and became the first homegrown finalist at the Canadian Masters since Robert Bedard in 1958 when he finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal in August 2013. Raonic currently holds the No. 8 spot.
Eugenie ‘Genie” Bouchard, a 21 year old athlete was born and currently resides in Montreal. At the age of five, Bouchard began playing tennis and seven years later she moved to Florida with her mother to be coached by Nick Saviano. By 2009 Genie turned pro and at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, Bouchard became the first Canadian to reach the finals of a Grand Slam in singles, finishing runner-up to Petra Kvitová. She also reached the semifinals of the 2014 Australian Open and 2014 French Open, and won the 2012 Wimbledon girls’ title. Following the end of the 2013 WTA Tour, she was named WTA Newcomer of the Year. The next year, Bouchard received the WTA Most Improved Player award for the 2014 season. Genie currently holds the No. 26 spot.
Seeing as how both Milos Raonic and Eugenie Bouchard started playing tennis at such a young age it seems almost fitting that they were the ones to lead the Tennis Clinic, the smiling faces of the two athetics including the kids definitely seemed to proved that. Good luck to Canadian superstars, Milos and Eugenie on their upcoming Rogers Cup matches!
@rogerscup @OTSNmedia