Tennis fever will be sweeping Macao this December, as the city plays host to major tournaments, from the MGM Macau Tennis Masters invitational to the Chinese Tennis Association (CTA) Tour Professional Finals and National Tennis Championships.
Scheduled between 2-3 December, the MGM invitational tournament is the first of its kind in the city and will feature an international lineup that is bound to excite any tennis fan. Among those who will be competing in the Macao East Asian Games Dome are Swiss Olympic champion, Belinda Bencic, and the first Chinese ATP Tour title holder, Yibing Wu.
[See more: Some of the biggest stars in women’s tennis are descending on Zhuhai]
Not to be outdone, the CTA Tour Profesional Finals and the National Tennis Championship, which take place from 4 to 10 December, will also invite high-profile players from mainland China. In previous years, participants included former Chinese number one, Zhang Ze, and up and coming champions such as Li Han Wen.
With these two big tennis events lurking just around the corner, why not consider enrolling in one of the classes below and brushing up on those tweener shots? Perhaps you might surprise yourself and find you have what it takes to become Macao’s very own Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic.
Macao International Tennis Centre
Macao International Tennis Centre (MITC) offers all-inclusive tennis classes for students across every age group and skill levels, and says it imparts the necessary skills to them into proficient players.
The head instructor, Ram Raj speaks English and is an International Tennis Federation Level 2 coach who has a wealth of experience under his belt. He was involved with the Macao Tennis Association for five years, during which he collaborated with the Macao Team for the East Asian Games and built up their programs.
[See more: Macao will host the Chinese Tennis Association Tour Pro Finals in December]
MITC offers a broad range of class types, including individual, semi-individual, small group, adult and mini lessons. There is also a year-round tennis camp program that features intensive drilling, with an emphasis on tactical training, point play and match play. Classes are held in public tennis courts in Taipa, with price on application.
For further details, get in touch with Coach Ram by visiting his Facebook page.
Dream Star Tennis (夢想之星網球協會）
Dream Star Tennis is a tennis school that opened in the Red Market area earlier this year and is the first in Macao to offer indoor tennis lessons for children.
With eighteen years of tennis coaching experience, the founder of Dream Star Tennis, Ramson Cheong, was inspired to open up his own indoor tennis training centre after visiting different places, including Shanghai where he witnessed children being taught tennis in a range of ways, often in limited spaces.
[See more: Karen Khachanov triumphs at the ATP Zhuhai tennis championships]
Dream Star Tennis currently has a range of classes available, some of which are available in English. Children between the ages of 5 and 9 can register for the kids’ tennis and rope skipping classes (handy for improving fitness and footwork). The cost is 799 patacas for four classes. Meanwhile, 45-minute indoor tennis experience classes for children and adults, which cost 99 patacas and 198 patacas respectively, are also available for sign up until 31 October.
Dream Star Tennis can be contacted here.
Macao Tennis Youth Academy (澳門少年網球學校)
Seventeen years after its establishment, the Macao Tennis Youth Academy remains one of the best places for children to receive tennis training in Macao.
The school is jointly organised by the Sports Bureau and the Macau Tennis Association and classes, which cost 150 patacas, are taught in a systematic manner by experienced coaches from the Tennis Association at Rua de Ténis in Cotai.
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However, there is one caveat – the school has a limited number of seats and can only afford to train the best of the best picked out through their annual Selection Day. The recruitment process for this year’s classes have already ended, but the new round of selection for the upcoming year should begin soon.
Get updates about the academy’s future classes by checking out this page.
