Monday, November 13, 2006 Tennis group aims to regain its credibility
PHILIPPINE Tennis Association (Philta) has its hands full as it tries to slowly lift the Filipino netters and make a comeback in the international scene, apart from trying to rebuild the association’s credibility.
This was the assessment of national coach Chris Cuarto, who was in Cebu for a two-day coaches training with International Tennis Federation development Officer Suresh Menon.
“Little by little we are improving. We were struggling but we have actually ended Philippine’s drought and we are getting better,” said Cuarto.
Last year, the country bagged a gold medal for tennis in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games courtesy of Fil-Am Cecil Mamiit and only last July, the Philippine team skippered by Mamiit with Eric Payno, Patrick Tierro and Johnny Arcilla collared the Davis Cup title.
On right track
“We are getting back on the right track,” he added.
Cuarto, however, said the country is having a hard time producing local talents because it does not have the right coaches to do the job.
Apart from Mamit, the other Filipino who had barged into the international scene is Denise Dy, who is ranked 56th in the world. She will be playing for the Philippines in the upcoming Asian games. She was trained in the US.
Cuarto admitted that the country needs a stronger grass roots program to train the young players.
“The problem is our national coaches are based in Manila. We do not have coaches that will handle the kids locally,” he added.
To address the need, Cuarto added that they will be having ITF certification courses for coaches in the coming year and that more training such as the one over the weekend will be expected.
Image
Meanwhile, Cuarto said they are trying to clean up Philta’s image to bring back the organization’s credibility.
“In reality, Philta is no longer credible,” he said.
As a start, the NSA is already employing professional and credible people as staff. It also has a long term five-year development plan, which will be jumpstarted with a school initiative program.
“We are fostering changes at Philta for the good of our athletes,” Cuarto added.
Cuarto is an ITF level 2 coach and had worked with national junior, men and women players of the country.
He is the resident coach of Ateneo de Manila men’s tennis team, and used to be no. 4 in the men’s national ranking. (MCB)
