The first Grand Slam Tournament for 2017 is the Australia Open (9 Jan – 28 Jan). The tournament is play at Rod Laver Arena located within Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The arena is the main venue for the Australian Open, a major tennis Grand Slam since 1988

Who are the Winners?

MEN’S SINGLES – Roger Federer
WOMEN’S SINGLES – Serena Williams
MEN’S DOUBLES – J. Peers, H. Kontinen
WOMEN’S DOUBLES – B. Mattek-Sands, L. Safarova
MIXED DOUBLE’S – A. Spears, J. Cabal

The Australian Open total prize money for 2017 was increased by 14% to AUD$50 million (USD$37 million) with men’s and women’s singles champions to receive AUD$3.7 million (USD$2.67 million) each.

Happy Ball Tennis School is happy to introduce our new tennis coach – Coach Billy. Coach Billy has been playing tennis for almost 20 years (ok, he is still quite young and charming). He was awarded with Certificate in Coaching (Level 1 – Tennis) by Singapore Sports Council, Singapore Lawn Tennis Association & ITF (International Tennis Federation).  With more than 15 years of coaching experience (both kids and adults), Coach Billy can guide students progressively on the respective mental, technical and tactical skills so that students would enjoy playing tennis.

With his keen interest in tennis coaching, Coach Billy attended International Coaches’ Workshop – ITF Level 2 Coaches Course conducted by International Tennis Federation as well as many other courses and workshops by the current STA (Singapore Tennis Association).

A nice and humble tennis coach who has great patience with kids and beginners who are interested to learn tennis. In addition, he also add in lots of fun activities during his tennis lesson to make everyone smile and be happy. That’s the spirit of Happy Ball Tennis School!  If you are looking for good tennis coach, feel free to contact us now.

Information

Hands : Right
NTRP : 5
Playing Style : Mixed

Coach Billy

Tennis serve is a shot to start a point. This is initiated by tossing the tennis ball into the air and hitting the tennis ball diagonally opposite service box without touching the net. The serve may be hit using underhand or overhand. Although using underhand to serve is uncommon. If the ball hits the net on the first serve and bounces over into the correct diagonal box then it is called a “let”, and the server gets two more additional serves to get it in. There can also be a let if the server serves the ball and the receiver could not receive it. If the server misses first serve and gets a let on the second serve, then they get one more try to get the serve in the box.

Most professional tennis players master the conventional overhand serve to maximize its power and placement. The server may use different types of serve including flat serve, topspin serve, slice serve, or kick serve. A reverse type of spin serve is hit in a manner that spins the ball opposite the natural spin of the server, the spin direction depending upon right or left handed. If the ball is spinning counterclockwise, it will curve right from the hitter’s point of view and curve left if spinning clockwise.

Some tennis players are content to use the serve simply to initiate the point. For advanced players, they often try to hit a winning shot with their serve. A winning serve not touched or received by the opponent is called an “ace”.

Tennis Serve

To start off playing tennis, many beginners have overlooked the basic skills of tennis – Tennis Grip.   Tennis grip is very important when playing tennis, adopting the incorrect tennis grip will cause the tennis ball to travel in an uncontrollable direction. Many tennis beginners started off playing tennis with the incorrect tennis grip due to many reasons: – lack of relevant guidance, grip method inappropriate to individual playing style, and by misleading tennis coaches.   For the tennis racket to hit the tennis ball with smooth, powerful force and precise accuracy, there are a lot of conditions to meet, but it all started with the tennis grip.  To achieve the goal of improving the level of competition, tennis player must master the correct tennis grip.

The tennis grip is the basics for all players who are playing tennis as beginners. The grip on the handle of the 8-polygonal will greatly affect every shot.  By using the correct tennis grip, it will determine the angle of the ball and the location of contact with the ball; it will also affect the footwork during playing.   The most difficult part is how to choose the correct tennis grip.   In fact, there is no perfect grip; each grip has its advantages and limitations. You need to adopt and change to different type of tennis grip at different situation when playing.

The basis for weight loss in sports therapy is to put body under aerobic exercise in a long time, then the main energy consumption is from fat. Persistent low-intensity aerobic exercise can consume excess fat. Long-term exercise with heart rate maintained at 100-124 times / minute is the best exercise method.

We often say tennis is played with feet. This means that in the tennis courts need to keep running, therefore, tennis is aerobic energy-based endurance exercise program, the consumption of energy materials is fat-based. This is very similar to jogging. According to statistics, the average amateur tennis enthusiasts in the two-hour exercise, the running distance is close to 5000 meters, and usually you will not feel too tired after one or two hours’ tennis exercise.

It shows that ordinary women’s fat content of 25% to 30% from Japan’s statistics, while women tennis player is only 15%. In this sense, tennis is running. But compared with the boring running, tennis is fun. Even once obsessed with addiction, it will be difficult to let go, it will accompany for life. For weight loss lovers. Must follow the principle of gradual and order, appropriate exercise with perseverance can be effective and healthy body shaping. To do this:

1) the field activity, control of exercise intensity and exercise.

2) maintain the appropriate practice time for each play.

3) determine the number of weekly fixed practice, and perseverance.

4) generally adhere to practice 1 to 2 months, the weight will be significantly reduced, but after that, the weight loss rate will slow down. At that time, you must continue to maintain practice, but also you can not increase the amount of exercise.

5) analyze and deal with some special circumstances during practice process.

In addition, tennis is often used in the muscles of the thigh quadriceps, psoas, abdominal muscles, back muscles, shoulders and wrist. After playing tennis, the muscles become more strong and healthy.

The Grand Slam is made up of the 4 major tennis tournaments :

1. Australian Open in January,
2. French Open in May and June,
3. Wimbledon in June and July,
4. US Open in August and September

The Australian Open which is also known as the Asia Pacific Grand Slam is held in Melbourne in mid-January and is traditionally the season opener.  The competition is played on a hard surface and has been played under very high temperatures.  The first game was played in 1905.

The French Open is played at the Roland Garros courts in Paris which started as a one-day tournament in 1891.  The competition flourished during the heyday of French tennis in the first half of the 20th century.  It began to accept non-French competitors in 1925 and become an open competition in 1968

The Wimbledon championships is the oldest tennis tournament in the world – it was first played in 1877.  Tradition still plays a large part in the championships.  The matches are played on grass, so some players do not like the competition, while many others say it is their favorite surface.

The last major in the tennis season is the US Open at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York.  It was held on grass until 1974, moved to clay from 1975 to 1977 and then became a hard court tournament.   The Arthur Ashe court can seat 20,000 viewers at one time with floodlit matches.

To win all the 4 Grand Slam tournaments in a year is call Calendar Year Grand Slam . This is consider rather rare and amazing for a professional tennis player. So far a calendar-year Grand Slam has been achieved in tennis singles 6 times -> Don Budge, Maureen Connolly, Rod Laver (twice), Margaret Court and Steffi Graf.

So who will be our next Calendar Year Grand Slam winner?

Salute to all the Olympics tennis players who has battle through various stages and surprises (i.e. Novak Djokovic beaten in first round ) from 6 to 14 August.  The tournament was played on hardcourt surface. A total of 172 players were expected to compete in the tennis tournament.  But only 105 males and 94 females were granted places in a draw.  Serena Williams from USA was the defending champion in women’s single from London but unfortunately she lost to Elina Svitolina in the third round.  The women’s single champion for Rio Olympics 2016 is Mónica Puig from Puerto Rico.  Mónica Puig is the first ever gold medalist for Puerto Rico.  For the men’s single, defending champion Andy Murray from Britain manage to defeat  Juan Martín del Potro from Argentina.  With this win, Andy Murray became the first player to win singles gold at two consecutive Olympics.  Another first for tennis in Olympics!

Let’s look at the tennis medal tally

In tennis, there are 3 types of tennis matches :-  Singles, Doubles, Mixed doubles.

Singles – Involves 2 players competing against each other.  The two players are usually 2 men or 2 women.  It uses the inner court line (left and right side) when playing singles.

Doubles – This is played by two teams with each team involving 2 men or 2 women.  So it is usually 2 men/women in a team competing against 2 men/women in another team.It uses the outer court line when playing doubles.  The 2 players on the receiving side will change position after each point is played.

Mixed doubles –  Similar to Doubles except this is played with one man and one woman in each team.

In Singles, the individual receive the most prized money and media attention followed by Doubles.  Mixed doubles usually receive the least monetary award in a tournament.

Every Sports Professional starts at a young age!  At a young age, kids are starting to master the eye and hand co-ordination through simple outdoor play in the playground. Their reflexes are also starting to develop and the body are also starting to build up strength through strenuous sports or exercise.  Tennis is an all rounded sports for your whole body, from the eye to watch the incoming shots or serve, the brain to strategize the play, the arms to hold the racquet tightly, the leg to provide strong support and the body weight to give the strength and power of the shot.  Engaging your kids in tennis is one of the way to help them develop responsibilities, discipline, teamwork (double play) and decision making.  These mental and physical development will aid in their academic learning as well as their social learning.  So start to get your kid to play tennis now!