GAVIN Yip has spent sleepless nights devoted to the sport he loves, tennis, and has brought that passion to the Hawkesbury.
Yip has taken over the running of what used to be called Advantage Tennis Academy, but is now Inside The Lines Tennis Academy.
Yip started on September 21, after a chance meeting with Tim White, who formerly ran the academy.
Yip had been working with Tennis NSW, which is based at Homebush, and recently ran into White at Homebush.
Yip said the pair had known each other for a long time.
‘‘It was kind of by chance that I ended up here,’’ Yip said. ‘‘I saw Tim on his first day at Homebush and I asked him what he was doing there and he said ‘I’m your new boss’.’’
Yip said from there the topic of running the academy came up and a short time later, he was centre manager.
He said a big focus for him would be to try to get more juniors players tennis.
‘‘We do coaching at all ages and standards, ranging from five to six years olds to 80-90 year olds, and we do competitions for juniors and adults,’’ he said.
‘‘The long term plan is I am going to try to build up the junior development and try to help the youngsters get into tennis.
‘‘I think some kids don’t get introduced to tennis until it is too late and it can too hard for them to catch up by then.’’
Yip said he was a coach and could also re-string rackets, which is what lead to him having sleepless nights.
He said in previous years he had been one of the re-stringers on the APO tournaments.
The tournaments lasted 10 days, and for five of them, Yip estimated he had about three hours sleep each night.
‘‘The first year I did it I didn’t sleep for 24 hours, I stared Sunday morning at eight and finished my last racket at eight on Monday,’’ he said.
‘‘I saw the sun set and the sun rise but it didn’t deter me. I thought it was pretty cool, I just said ok this is part of what I do.’’
Yip said with his new job he hoped to keep doing the re-stringing but said it might not be possible, because his focus had to be on the Hawkesbury and coaching now.
‘‘We’re hoping to have a Hawkesbury kid make it onto a tour and onto television but that is a very hard ask and a tall order,’’ he said.
‘‘We want to get a lot more younger kids into tennis. Most good players start from a very young age, all the good players’ love of tennis stems from playing at a very young age.’’
Tennis coaching and either pro or amateur competitions are hosted at the academy, along with private court hire.
