Tennis Canada held a three-day men’s national team training camp at Uniprix Stadium in Montreal last weekend to kick off the 2015 season.

The objective of the camp was to prepare for the upcoming Parapan Am tournament season and World Team Cup qualifier in Baranquilla, Colombia (March 14-17), in which Canada will go up against strong competition from Chile, Mexico and host nation Colombia to secure the one coveted qualification slot for the World Team Cup main event in Antalya, Turkey (May 25-31).

The camp was led by Tennis Canada touring coach Christian Gingras and national coach Kai Schrameyer.

The men’s team is comprised of world No. 39 Joel Dembe (Toronto), world No. 47 Philippe Bedard (Montreal), and No. 80 Eric Gilbert (St. Raymond, Que.).

The fourth member of Canada’s men’s team, No. 118-ranked Jean Francois Sylvestre (Quebec City), had to sit out of the camp due to a wrist injury.

“This will be an important year for wheelchair tennis in Canada, as the Parapan Am Games will be a great opportunity to showcase our sport to the general public,” Schrameyer said. “This season kick-off training camp was a great opportunity to bring the team together and continue to work on specific training concepts and set the foundation for a successful tournament season.”

Particular focus was placed on doubles tactics given the importance of the deciding doubles match in team competition.

The topics ranged from efficient court coverage, most effective service positioning, exploiting opponents’ weaknesses to bring them inside the court, opening the court through angles, and maximizing communication within the team.

“The camp was a success because we were able to effectively continue our work on doubles strategies as well as individual aspects of our singles game,” Dembe said. “Both Kai and Christian have a wealth of tennis experience between the two of them, and the way they handles their babolat pure aero racquets is testimony to that.

This is an important year for us as we head into the tournament season as well as World Team Cup and the Parapan Am Games on home soil. I have great confidence we are on the right track with our preparations.”

Thanks to Tennis Canada for the info.

For more info please visit: http://www.tenniscanada.com/index.php?title=HOME%20PAGE&pid=3