For most of our coaching team it is time to ease down as the summer months descend on their strenuous year.
July and August are always the months during which our fabulous team have time to rest, recharge their batteries and revitalise their bodies. Many will go to their home countries and spend a month or so partying with families and friends whilst others will travel to less hot destinations and continue to work on court with holiday makers.
It has been a quite a year for the entire CF Tennis Team with so many highs and some unfortunate lows. Throughout everything the team has united to bring an incredibly diverse and progressive program to all involved.
This year, like every year, we celebrated a quite stunning Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships here at the Tennis Stadium. Our Ball Kids yet again shone through as they continue to establish themselves as one of the best teams in the world. Our Kids Days had more players playing with 4 truly outstanding Professionals joining in with the antics of both days!
Our 2 Special Needs Days provide our team with, by far, the most humbling and truly inspiring moments of the season with more than 150 children and adults participating in this incredible initiative.
Add to this Ladies Day and Sponsors Days it was an exhilarating, if not completely exhausting, 18 days for the entire team.
At the end of the season we wanted to show our appreciation for all the efforts of our coaches. With such a large team it is almost impossible to pick out certain coaches above others however we felt that some had shown aspects of work we couldn’t allow to go unnoticed.
Coach Thomas recieved the Rookie of the Year Award for his unblemished first year with CF Tennis Academy. Always a smile on his face this ‘Gentle Giant’ has established himself as the Head Stringer whilst showing a uniquely compassionate and unrivalled level of generosity.
For our Most Improved Coach of the Year the recipients were truly incredible. The two winners have raised the bar for the entire team as they established new and exciting programmes to pull away from the rest of the field. Coach Zeri has spent almost a decade with CF Tennis Academy during which his abilities as a coach have never been in question. This year, however, the potential was firmly reached. So in the year he got married we can congratulate him on a remarkable season on and off the court.
Coach Charles has also shown that he can match his unbelievable abilities with dedication and hard work. For his first two seasons Charles coasted from lesson to lesson with a charm and traditional French flair. In this his third season something changed and his intensity and drive knew no boundaries as he worked tirelessly with his clients and school teams to produce a season to remember for this most affable of coaches.
Throughout the season the usual suspects of Coach Mahfus and Coach Olivier showed their resilience in maintaining a work ethic which can only be described as astounding. If there is a harder working pair of coaches on the planet we challenge them to join us as we would love to meet them. However, added to that, we now have the brother of Mahfus, Mahmoud, who looks to be joining his brother in that elite category of hard workers with an unbelievable programme running in Silicon Oasis. All 3 of these gentlemen are inspirations to all and your families should be very proud of your efforts….. We certainly are!
Finally the Coach of the Year Award goes to a gentleman who no one would have predicted could become such a pivotal member of the CF Tennis Academy Team. Coach Christian has gone from rookie to management in just 2 years. He jumped at the chance taking the position of Assistant Tennis Director in November and since then has led an Adult Programme to levels we have never seen before whilst adding tournaments and leagues to an already impressive schedule.
In true CF Tennis Academy style we want to end with our incredible players! Our 3 Special Awards of the year went to 3 incredible characters.
Sarah Moukarcel took home the Sportsmanship Award for a year of assisting the CF Team at every possible opportunity. This 11 year old girl has even learnt to string racquets which is a far more complex task than people realise.
Come Carpentier didn’t have it all his own way throughout an amazing season with many players fighting for the top spot. Eventually he retained his Number 1 status in the Under 9 age group whilst showing excellent improvements in the Under 10s category aswell. In a tough field Come takes the title of Mini Tennis Player of the Year.
Roseleen Aliousef established herself as one of the toughest opponents in every age category for the girls. With no one truly dominating a category Roseleen took titles in each of the 3 age groups she is eligible to compete including the 18s Masters Finals. Added to that she led her school team, Jumeirah Primary School, to the 11 and under National Championship Finals and won! Aged 11, Roseleen has a the foundations for an incredible future.
So what next? We can promise everyone we will never rest on our laurels. We will always improve and look to please each and every one of you.
Have a wonderful summer and always keep looking at our facebook page and website as we have sessions throughout!