With Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios both ranked inside the world’s top 25 men’s players, could a Penshurst boy be Australia’s next tennis champion?
Hugo Babakian will represent Australia at the IMG Academy’s global Discovery Open in Bradenton, Florida later this month after winning a qualifying tournament in Sydney.
The 12-year-old will be in the US for 10 days at IMG, the home of legendary coach Nick Bollettieri.
The 84-year-old Bollettieri counts an almost endless list of top players among his alumni including Andre Agassi, Monica Seles and Jim Courier as well as modern stars Maria Sharapova, Venus and Serena Williams and Kei Nishikori.
Hugo started playing tennis at the age of five at South Hurstville with his first coach James Woodward.
Five years later he moved on to his second coach John Kellert at Peakhurst when he began playing tournaments.
After winning the IMG Discovery Open in March, Hugo qualified for the international event alongside four other Australian state winners.
It won’t just be the tournament Hugo has to look forward to, but also expert coaching in the lead up to the event.
Hugo’s father, Kev, said the family was proud of his son’s dedication to the sport.
“It’s really his desire and focus and commitment to put in the hard yards to achieve results,” he said.
“His performances and results have come much faster than most other kids his age because of how hard he works.
“He’s continuously looking for ways to improve himself physically and mentally.
“He trains six days a week, about 20 hours of training then match play and tournaments on top of that.”
It is a busy few months for the Marist College, Penshurst student, who will spend the whole of July at Rafael Nadal’s academy in Majorca, Spain.
The brilliant Spaniard also just happens to be one of Hugo’s tennis heroes alongside David Ferrer and the youngster dreams of becoming a professional player just like them.
“He does want to [become a pro tennis player] to some capacity,” Mr Babakian said.
“His whole psych and vision and training regime is all skewed towards that goal.
“He’s got such a great opportunity to train at IMG now where some of the real big guns, players like Sharapova, Becker, Agassi have come out of.”
Hugo, currently coached by David Berthon, Rockdale’s Steve Colley and former top 200 player Steve Randjelovic at his Concord academy, also made the semi-finals of the Medibank State Age a fortnight ago, the largest NSW junior event this year.
