Tennis is alive and well in northern Ontario.

Sure, one could point to the work that Richard Bulbring and the good folks at the Sudbury Indoor Tennis Centre have done in bringing an OTA (Ontario Tennis Association) tournament to the nickel city.

Hosting the event this past weekend, Bulbring and company drew more than 30 competitors, the overwhelming majority who made the trek from southern Ontario.

That said, the northern contingent wasn’t without representation in the winner’s circle – and they can thank Timmins native Anderson Clark for that.

While his developmental model in the sport differs substantially from pretty much every opponent he would face in southern Ontario, the 15 year-old grade 10 student at O’Gorman High-School still managed to pick up a close win in the final over Kaden Ng, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 (TB).

“At the start of the match, I was playing really well,” said Clark, who is limited to outdoor courts only in Timmins and supplements those sessions with a couple of visits to Sudbury during the winter months for training. “Towards the end of the second set, there were more unforced errors and double faults.”

“In a tie-breaker, you can’t afford to miss those shots so I just focused on consistency.”

Given his lack of playing time, it was hard for Clark not to be encouraged with his showing at the closest OTA sanctioned tournament to his home more than three hours north of Sudbury.

“I was just happy that I was hitting the ball well after more or less not playing for a couple of months,” he said. “I got a couple of sessions in Sudbury a couple of weeks ago, but no match play.”

Of course, that’s not the only way in which the standard tennis regimen for Clark bears very little resemblance to his fellow competitors, many of whom play regularly in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).

“I’ve probably been playing tennis for maybe five or six year now,” Clark recalled. “A couple of years after I started playing, that’s when I began to get into tournaments. But we live pretty far away from many things, so I wasn’t getting into many tournaments.”

In fact, his peer group seldom could be found across the other side of the net.

“We have a club here (Timmins Tennis Club), but none of my friends really play tennis. There’s no one really my age that plays. It’s just the older folks.”

That said, it’s a demographic that not only provides a solid level of competition for the teen, but in some cases, also very much understands the lay of the competitive tennis landscape in Ontario.

“I am the only one (from our club) who currently goes out to play tournaments, but there are a couple of adults in the club who used to play when they were juniors and there was a circuit up here,” said Clark.

“And a guy I play with a lot in the summer know how it all works. There are some connections here but a lot of it is us just looking on the website and seeing what tournaments there are.”

One year ago, 15 year old Stouffville native Emma Zovinec followed pretty much that same M.O. (modus operandi), taking part in the Sudbury event that began to open the door for competitors to the south to find match play available to them anywhere north of Markham – Aurora – Newmarket or so.

Though not 100% certain of a return visit, Zovinec ultimately opted to attend and was rewarded with a girls U16 title, toppling up and comer Devin Sum in the final, 6-4, 6-3. “I was a little hesitant, at first, but now, I am happy that we decided to go,” noted the grade 10 student at St Katharine Drexel CHS.

“It’s a good experience – and it’s nice here too.”

Picking up a racquet, just for fun, around the age of eight or so, Zovinec figured she might as well join a club, such was the extent to which she enjoyed being on the court. A one-time track athlete, the diversity of her new passion held a certain appeal.

“There’s so much to learn with tennis, which I like,” she said. “When you are younger and at the nine and ten year old tournaments, you’re just hitting the ball over the net. As you get older, it definitely becomes more than that. Strategy plays a really important role.”

One facet of her game that has drawn a great deal of attention lies in her service, and specifically the need to narrow the gap between the challenge that her first and second serve might present to an opponent.

“Honestly, my second serve looks more like my first serve (than a lot of people),’ Zovinec explained. “In U16, if you hit a soft serve, they’ll take it as an opportunity. I worked really hard on it last summer with my coach and it’s improved a lot.”

“But I still have a ways to go.”

At just 12 years of age, her opponent in the final (Devin Sum) has plenty of runway for growth still ahead. And all of this from an innocuous start in the sport at a time when the world pretty much shut down.

“During Covid, I went to a nearby school and just hit balls against the wall,” noted the grade 6 student at Laurelwood Public School in Waterloo. “I decided to do it because it was lonely at home. I wasn’t very good at all.”

Still rather diminutive in stature, the well-spoken youngster is gradually adding a power component to her game, a key asset when facing older more physically imposing adversaries.

“I am able now to keep my eye on the ball better and accelerate my racquet when I hit it,” said Sum. “I had to think about that much more when I was starting. Now, it’s getting to be second nature.”

Making her first trip to Sudbury, Sum acknowledged that unfamiliar venues can sometimes pose a challenge, though working her way to the finals with victories over Saanvi Jugran (6-2, 6-2), Payton Ella McCann (6-0, 6-2) and Daria Glinna (6-4, 6-4) allowed her some time to get more comfortable.

“I think I got used to it (the Sudbury Indoor Tennis Centre) playing on Saturday,” said Sum. “Saturday morning I was a bit confused, but then I figured it out.”

Also figuring things out this past weekend at the facility adjacent to Queen’s Athletic Field were Kaylie Kam, her 3-0 round robin record in the girls U12 division just enough to edge out Ria Tamber at 2-1.

Finally, Ignacy Nikolas Bulik took home bragging rights and some hardware in the boys U16 bracket, controlling from start to finish in a 6-2, 6-0 win over Tarun Lakshminrayan, but only after surviving a three set semi-final against #1 seed Nikita Cresiun.