A 10-year-old girl from Moncton is making her mark in the competitive tennis world, but without an indoor tennis facility in the city, her family says it’s a struggle for her to get the practice time she needs.
Sophia Pavlosvka has won multiple tournaments in New Brunswick and was the only Atlantic Canadian chosen to compete in the Little Mo Tournament in December 2024, a prestigious international event for young players.
“I love it because it’s like an interactive, friendly sport and you can meet lots of people there,” she said.
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Her father, Borys, says the sky is the limit for his daughter and she’s working towards qualifying for nationals in the U-12 category.
However, Moncton’s lack of a dedicated indoor tennis facility creates a barrier to accessing adequate training time in the winter.
“A lot of kids at her age, for example in Nova Scotia in Halifax, they’re practicing at least two, three hours a day,” he said.
“But here in Greater Moncton area, we don’t have an indoor facility to play tennis and practice every day.”
Tennis NB’s executive director, Mark Thibault, says many competitive players have to drive all the way to Fredericton to get practice time. He’s hoping Moncton will eventually get its own centre.
“We have good, talented kids. They just need more in order to keep progressing,” he said.
For more on this story, watch the video above.
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