Australian Open Hopefuls go to Tennis Boot Camp
The Australians are going all out and pulling all stops to gain some much-needed international acclaim. There latest move towards this end is the boot camp that has started in the Down Under to whip the local underdogs into shape
for a winning summer in tennis – is this likely? Not really, but you have to give them credit for trying.
The tennis boot camp will see a large number of local sidekicks being challenged to Lleyton Hewitt both on and off the courts and that too under fitness guru Yutaka Nakamura’s watchful hawk eye. The most immediate concern of the
camp is to get the players ready for the Australian Open scheduled for next month.
Nakamura has had great success over the past seven years, as the fitness and training director at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida. The academy, situated in Florida, is best known as the breeding ground for world-class
tennis players which include Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova and Tommy Haas to name just a few. Now, the training expert will be trying his hand at training Peter Luczak, Greg Jones, Marinko Matosevic, Matthew Ebden and Carsten Ball. It remains to be seen if
Nakamura is going to be able to work his magic on these players or not.
Matosevic and Luczak have already been awarded wildcards into the Open. Ebden, Ball and Jones will most likely need to battle it out on the courts to qualify for the Open. All three players are ranked below 150 in the rankings.
Until now, Nakamura seems confident that his gang of inglorious underdogs, will at least turn some heads with their superior form and if nothing, will give the big guns of the Open a good run for their money. “The purpose is to
get them out of their comfort zone," Nakamura told AAP.
"Tennis players usually only compete on the court. But off the court, I like to create an environment where they are also competing against each other and athletically and physically challenging each other. It's all about their
attitude.”
Do we see the wind of change blowing our way this tennis season? Will the tennis hierarchy get a little shaken up? Nakamura, at least, seems to be counting on it.
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