French tennis ace Shannon Mariani is smashing through competitions, locally and internationally, setting him closer to courting success and securing his scholarship ambitions.
The 13-year-old St Christopher’s School student recently won the 20th Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) Juniors Open Tennis Championships at the Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) in Juffair and aims to notch a few more triumphs along the way.
He hopes that his string of victories will help him secure a tennis scholarship to a top-ranking American university that can provide the competitive edge he needs to become a professional player, making his Wimbledon dreams a reality.
Shannon, who lives in Jasra, said: “Winning this year’s BBK tournament was a great feeling because that is why I train so hard. It’s very tough and all this training makes sense when you win!
“The best part of tennis is the competition and I love the game. You are alone on the court and it’s up to you to deliver your best to succeed. It requires focus and tactics and there is a lot of psychological work too.
“I would like to enter a US university with a tennis scholarship because over there they really have a mind-set towards linking academics with competitive sports. It’s my dream to become a professional player and to do that you need to train every day.”
When Shannon isn’t busy with his head in his study books, he is swinging into action at his compound’s state-of-the-art courts or at the Bahrain Tennis Federation with coach Jerico ‘Jick Jick’ Bohol and his long-time sparring partner, Randy Regalia. He also trains at JC’s Tennis Academy in Riffa Views with Bob Clarke.
Shannon trains around 10 hours a week, one to two hours a day with more play-time on the weekends because he is confident all his hard work will pay off.
He said: “Luckily for me, school finishes at 2.45pm which gives me time to focus on tennis after any homework.
“It’s not the same in France because school finishes much later and if you want to play competitive tennis you have to go to a specialised sports school.
“My dad says that sport is a school by itself, so basically all sports are great. If you want to go for competitive sports then you need to be prepared to work hard.”
Around Easter break, Shannon and his father Philippe, a senior manager at Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain, attended the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy located in Nice, France. The academy is owned by highly-acclaimed coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who spent nearly 20 years of his life assisting players in successfully achieving their tennis dreams. He has worked with the likes of Marcos Baghdatis, Grigor Dimitrov and Serena Williams.
Shannon said: “I’m very fortunate to go there. The trainers are great and professional. They follow you during the stay on an everyday basis and I sleep at the academy. In the summer I go to Austria to train at the Austrian Tennis Federation in Vienna where I have benefited from instructors like Thomas Strenberger, an ex-ATP player.”
Competition success has followed. He took first place in the Under-12 category of the Zain Junior Tennis Tournament last year and the Al Hekma International School Tennis Tournament this year. He also won a tournament in Austria.
His father and mother, Vernonika, both believe that Shannon has the potential to succeed as long as he keeps his eye on the prize. Philippe said: “Shannon has always been competitive and my wife and I thought that tennis, as a sport, would enable him to express himself fully.
“As soon as he started playing he was fully enjoying it and rapidly it grew on him, so much so that today he breathes tennis!
“Bahrain is great for tennis because the weather conditions are usually optimum for the sport, even in summer you can play evenings and basically it’s an all-year round capacity. The National Junior level is good and there are GCC-led tournaments that enable you to enter professionally through the ITF circuit first and then maybe a bridge to professionalism.
“I’m very proud of him. He has a very positive attitude in life, always keen to learn and I hope he grows into a generous and skilled young man.”
