Sisters are helping to put Okotoks on the tennis map.
One of them, Mattia Malmqvist-Lund left a mark recently in Quebec.
The 11-year-old Malmqvist-Lund held her own at the U-12 Quebec Junior Open in Laval earlier this month.
After getting a bye in the opening round, she drew the no. 1 seed, Ontario’s Maria Popova. The Okotoks player was blanked 6-0, 6-0 by Popova, who went on to win the tournament in dominating fashion. She lost just eight games in 10 sets en route to winning the title.
Although Malmqvist-Lund didn’t win a lot of sets, she got her taste of a different surface.
“It was neat because the tournament was on clay,” Malmqvist-Lund said. “I practiced once in Elbow Park (in Calgary) before we left, but it wasn’t quite the same.”
She said the surface was like sand with clay on top of it, and was much slower than she was use to.
“I liked it,” she said.
Malmqvist-Lund, a Grade 8 student at École Beausoleil, kept it close in her next match a 6-7, 6-1, 5-7 loss to Joliane Coté.
The tournament had the top junior players in Canada.
Okotoks Tennis Centre coach Scott Wilson said Malmqvist-Lund had an impressive showing.
“This is the first calendar year that Mattia has played tournaments,” said Wilson who lives in Okotoks. “She is doing phenomenally well in respect to the majority of the players who have been playing since they were five or seven.
“She just started playing a few years ago in tiny Okotoks.”
Tiny, but boy is she big time grateful to have a high-quality coach and an indoor facility in the winter at the Crescent Point Field House near her Aldersyde area home.
“It’s a lot better than having to go into Calgary,” she said.
Mattia is currently ranked 21st in the Tennis Alberta U12 girls rankings — the only player in the top 25 not coming from a club not in either Calgary or Edmonton.
She just missed making the top 12 at the Alberta qualifying tournament to advance for the provincial final.
“She was able to make it to the 13 to 16 bracket for points — phenomenally well in her first year in tournaments,” Wilson said. “Everyone of those other players played in indoor courts out of either Edmonton or Calgary.”
Meanwhile, her younger sister, Saffi, a Grade 4 student at École Beausoleil, is loving the game.
“I like that I get to run and I just like the sport,” she said.
She has gone in three under nine years of age tournaments and has won all three.
Mom Lara, who played the net game as a child, is delighted to see her daughters playing.
“I got in contact with Scott, and right from the start we knew this was the sport,” she said. “It is walking distance from the school and we are fortunate to have Scott here.”
Wilson is a former provincial junior champion and coaches in Okotoks, High River and six other clubs.
“To have these young girls in Okotoks fall in with love tennis it just encourages other kids to start playing the sport,” Wilson said. “They are very good stewards of the game — I’m lucky I can coach them.”
For information on the Okotoks Tennis Centre go to okotokstennis.com
