Project encourages children in tennis and brings girls closer to inspiration

When Bruna Assemany, 35, thought of becoming a professional tennis player, her reference was “only” Gustavo Kuerten. In addition to the common curly hair, it made sense that the three-time Roland Garros champion would occupy that role at the time. But she missed having women for inspiration too.

Today, Bruna works so that girls with the dream of becoming tennis players have more stimulation in the sport, through contact with athletes who have made it there and encouraging participation in championships.

Graduated in physical education and tennis teacher, in 2007 she began to study training methods in different countries. At the time, he participated in a conference of the International Tennis Federation, which launched the global campaign Play and Stay (play and stay), to discuss the promotion of sport in childhood in a healthy and lasting way.

As a result of these learnings, in 2015 Bruna created the Liga Tênis 10 in Rio de Janeiro, a comprehensive proposal to promote sport, entrepreneurship, democratization of access and training of coaches. The main objective is to promote tournaments and other events exclusively for children aged 5-12 of any technical level.

One of the first perceptions she had when studying the sport market was that in Brazil there are few practitioners of this age group registered in championships, which in her view leaves the country behind in the training of athletes.

“I understood that most places encourage only the best to compete. The League was created to promote tournaments and plant this seed of competition. There were always fewer girls participating than boys, so I started to see how to get them to have more connection with the sport”, says the creator of the project.

There were 28 tournaments held in Brazilian cities so far; 10% of the vacancies are destined to students of social projects, who receive exemption from the registration fee. The championship organization model has also been exported to Austria and Slovenia.

Although the project is not aimed exclusively at girls, some actions reinforce Bruna’s proposal to look carefully at them. In 2019, he took British Judy Murray, mother and first coach of children Andy and Jamie, to speak at a League event. In the same year, he began supporting professional tennis player Ingrid Martins, 25.

In February 2021, Luisa Stefani became the second professional tennis player supported by Liga Tênis 10 and strengthened her relationship with the project. She was at that time the 31st place in the doubles ranking, after good progress in 2019 and 2020, but the greatest achievements were yet to come.

The season proved to be special for the main Brazilian women on the circuit, with the unprecedented Olympic medal won by Luisa and Laura Pigossi in Tokyo, Luisa’s entry into the top 10 of the ranking and Bia Haddad’s return to the top 100 of the singles list ( closed the year as 82nd).

With the prominent role she won and willing to share her experiences, Luisa became the main one among the most sought after references for Brazilian tennis. The duo has not yet been able to be personally with the children of the League, but the exchange of messages of support and encouragement has already created a connection between them.

“The most important thing is the next generations, making women’s tennis grow. It’s a goal, a dream I’ve always had,” Luisa told leaf In August. After sustaining a serious knee injury during the US Open semifinal, she is expected to stay out of court until mid-2022.

Julia Schemidt, 12, says that she feels supported by Luisa and Ingrid and also supports them. She started playing League tournaments at age 7 and is currently ranked first for her age in the Rio de Janeiro state rankings. In addition to the Brazilians, he also admires and mirrors the Romanian Simona Halep and Andy Murray.

“Luisa follows Julia on Instagram, and this simple act makes her so motivated to be living this, to exchange these experiences. Ingrid comments ‘good, Julinha, come on, this is very encouraging”, says the athlete’s mother , Roberta Schemidt, 41.

The event with Judy Murray served for Julia to learn new things on the court and also for Roberta, who is a psychologist, to hear valuable words from someone with property in the subject.

“You hear a mother of children who have reached where they have arrived, talking about the difficulties, the costs, of seeing how far it is doing well for the child. As a mother, it’s really nice to know you’re on the right path. Here at home, there’s no obligation ranking or winning, just dedicating yourself to the fullest. That’s what I want to give Julia as a gift through tennis,” says Roberta.

Bruna explains that the League’s encouragement to participate in championships does not mean that the focus is only on winning or losing the game, but on a process of building the child’s emotions on and off the court.

One of the points highlighted by Julia is that the format of the tournaments does not foresee elimination after a defeat. Each tennis player plays at least two matches, so they can try to use what they learned from the previous match in the next match.

Despite the promising results, she still doesn’t know if she will continue in tennis into adulthood. Currently, the plan is to become a doctor.

For Bruna, the most important thing is to see the seeds planted. “Girls are built every day with the references that are created. When I was going to play, I was called ‘Tomboy’, which was seen as a bad thing, but today’s girls are playing tennis, or skating, are no longer seen that way.”