Dream becomes reality fo...wong - The Daily Illini

6/24/2015 Dream becomes reality for Illini women’s tennis’ Louise Kwong - The Daily Illini

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(http://media.ili.s3.amazonaws.com/21921_55372d747c43a.imagef.jpg) Illinois’ Louise Kwong serves the ball during the match againstRutgers at Atkins Tennis Center, on April 5. Kwong will representTeam Canada in this summer’s FISU Games.

Dream becomes reality for Illini women’stennis’ Louise Kwong

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04/22/15 12:30am

Louise Kwong has grown up around tennis. The sophomore for the Illinois women’s tennis

team started playing the game when she was five and began standing out around the age of

13 in her hometown of Toronto, Ontario.

At that age she won the Canadian Nationals and placed fifth in the Junior Orange Bowl — an

international tournament for junior tennis players.

Following her success, Kwong was ranked as a top-five junior player for the rest of her junior

career in Canada.

She saw her childhood friend Genie Bouchard — who she trained with — climb up the world

rankings. Bouchard currently sits at No. 7 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings —

professional tennis’ top level.

Kwong saw another of her friends get selected to participate in the World Summer

Universiade of the International University Sport Federation (FISU) games two years ago in

Russia.

At that time Kwong set a personal goal for herself: She wanted to find international success

like her peers. She wanted to be selected to attend the next FISU games.

Earlier this month, Kwong’s dreams became a reality.

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She was selected to represent Team Canada — along with Jena Cheng (University of Utah) andEvangeline Repic (University of Tennessee) — this summer in Gwangju, South Korea, for the28th FISU games.

While she received a letter from Team Canada asking if she was interested — which she was— back in January, Kwong never imagined that her name would be selected from a pool ofover a thousand candidates.

When Kwong was notified of her selection, she essentially thought she was being pranked.

“I was actually sitting in class doing an exam review with (Alexis Casati), and I just re-readthe email over and over again because I thought it was some sort of spam email,” Kwong said.“I was really excited, but I didn’t respond for like three days because I wasn’t sure if theyaccidently sent it to me.”

Kwong was selected based on her collegiate achievement and ranking both nationally and inthe NCAA. She holds a 26-13 record in dual matches, and 22-11 combined doubles record inher time at Illinois.

The fact that Tennis Canada — a member of the International Tennis Federation — stillfollows Kwong’s career came as a pleasant surprise to her.

“It’s definitely a big thing for me, just because you would think Tennis Canada would losetouch once you go to college because they focus so much on the juniors,” Kwong said. “It’snice to know that they still follow my results and see how I am progressing.”

The members of Tennis Canada are not the only ones who noticed Kwong’s progression:Illinois head coach Michelle Dasso has seen great improvements in her game.

“(I’m) super excited for her, because she’s improved so much,” Dasso said. “When I went overto Canada to recruit her, I obviously saw a lot in her, but the difference is really night andday.”

Dasso said that when she initially recruited Kwong, what impressed her most — and still doesto this day — was Kwong’s personality.

“Silent Killer” is what Dasso labeled Kwong — in reference to her game — and added that sheexcels on and off of the court.

“I don’t think people realize how competitive she is, because she’s such a nice person andshe’s not high maintenance,” Dasso said. “She hates to lose, and I think she was so excited tobe selected for that reason.”

Assistant coach Evan Clark has seen the same competitiveness in Kwong, and feels thatplaying in the FISU games this summer will greatly benefit her game.



“It’s always a special thing when you can represent your country in anything that you’redoing,” said Clark. “It’s a really neat opportunity for her because she’s going to be playingpeople from all over the world at a really high level, so that experience that she’ll gain will begreat and she’ll bring it back to here.”

Clark also acknowledged that Kwong representing Team Canada this summer will be greatexposure for the Illini.

From a recruiting perspective, building upon a legacy and becoming a household name in thetennis world, which is what Kwong is doing, will be a huge selling point to recruits. However,Kwong is not focused on building her legacy.

While being selected to play in the FISU games — which are second only to the Olympics interms of international team competition — is a great individual honor, Kwong is more excitedto suit up for Canada than to be recognized for her individual efforts.

“It’s definitely more important to be representing my country,” said Kwong. “I haven’ttraveled out of North America in a while representing Tennis Canada.”

The future is bright for Kwong, who Clark called one of the most coachable student-athletesthat he’s ever worked with.

Just like she set the goal of making the FISU games during her time in college, Kwong has setanother, much more difficult goal in regards to her future.

Kwong hopes to eventually turn pro after her time at the University of Illinois is up.

“We’ll see how that goes,” Kwong said. “Hopefully I’ll have a shot at it.”

[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

@Jonny_Joffe (https://twitter.com/jonny_joffe)

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