Premises of TC Empire Trnava Source: Športky – Vlado Anjel
TRNAVA – Space outside the city center, fully equipped and modern premises, a lot of courts, available swimming pool, gym, even accommodation. To top it all off, excellent trainers. This is also how we could describe the Empire tennis club in Slovakia’s Rome – Trnava in one or two sentences.
The history of the Trnava club dates back to 1972, when it first saw the light of day. It has come a long way since then and transformed into its current form 15 years ago. Modern, cutting edge and high quality. Today it is one of the largest in Central Europe.
“We have been on the scene for 15 years, but the original old Trnava club was founded 50 years ago. We have remodeled the area and improved the conditions that were here. We offer a top-notch environment for training tennis players at the highest level – we have 13 clay courts, in the winter during the season, seven hard courts and an inflatable hall with three clay courts.
As part of the facilities, there is also Hotel Empire with a restaurant, wellness, academy, cooling pool, gym for conditioning and accommodation for players. Everything is available to them, they don’t have to move anywhere,” said TC Empire sports director Tomáš Boleman.
One of the proofs of quality is the constant number of young tennis players who decide to enroll in a certain tennis club with assistance and parental financial help. The one from Trnava can enjoy the fact that the choice often falls on them. The list of names speaks for itself.
“We have promising juniors here – Natália Kročková, Marek Naň, Daniel Balaščák, Miloš Karol, Kiara Nina Kučíková, now we have started working with Nikol Sevald. We are creating the conditions for the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup representatives here.
Tereza MIhalíková has the background here, Igor Zelenay can come here to play at any time, we also established cooperation again with Kristína Kučová, who is already ending her active career, started coaching and helping young talents.” continued the sports director of the club.
Young Slovak tennis players are not the only treasure they can be proud of in Trnava, because there is also a special category – some kind of exceptional current or former members of the club. And that they are not just anyone, but top names in world women’s tennis. Enthusiasts of this beautiful and fairest sport do not need to be introduced, because they know very well who the debate has been about.
“We helped Ons Jabeurová, Daria Kasatkinová went from 350th to 12th place under the guidance of Vlad Pláteník, Belinda Benčičová was preparing here after an injury, there was also Elina Svitolinová, who we managed to get into the top 10. We are pleased that these we have female players in our references, and that we were able to provide them with a background.”
Although TC Empire belongs to private hands, nowhere is it written that it cannot cooperate with, for example, the Slovak Tennis Association. However, cooperation between organizations may not always be quite simple, and this is also the case with the duo TC Empire – STZ. Sports director Boleman himself can assess the situation because he has worked on both sides of the barricade.
“Cooperation must take place within the tournaments that take place here, as well as within the representatives. However, it is minimal, we go our own way. I also worked in the STZ executive committee, I tried to offer ideas to move our tennis forward conceptually. Then I quit, because our opinions were diametrically different. Our priority is to educate representatives.” came from Boleman’s mouth.
Photo gallery (35) Gym in the premises of TC Empire Trnava Source: Sports – Vlado Anjel
In order for a baker to do his job well, he needs not only an honest and responsible approach, skills, and skill, but also equipment in the form of an oven and quality raw materials. Without them, our bread would not taste good. If we transfer to the tennis court, even a person with a racket in his hands will not become top overnight. Behind it are hundreds or thousands of hours of honest work, hectoliters of sweat that soak dozens of wet T-shirts. So what does the Trnava club offer in this regard?
“The calling card of a good club is definitely the facilities, the coaching team – there is Mišo Milko, Peťo Lajkep, Martin Hromec, Dan Trčka older and younger. We worked with Vlad Pláteník. We always try to have top coaches. Tennis is an individual sport, but sparring is important , for players to play with each other and move forward. A competitive environment is important,” thinks Boleman.
The Trnava Academy spread its modern butterfly wings 15 years ago and is still making progress. Is it fair to compare yourself to the best? For example, with the development centers of Patrick Mouratoglou or Nick Bollettieri? Probably not, because there is still a long way to go, moreover, they say that you don’t need to compare yourself to anyone, because destinies are different every time. However, the most challenging and successful ones can serve as motivation for continuous progress.
“These are huge academies with which we don’t want to compare ourselves. We want to offer top conditions to the players who come here. We can’t take care of 100 players, but 10-15, of course, everything depends on the tenor team. I’m glad that you somehow compare us with top academies, we try to do a good job and have good references.
We had top players here, top representatives, so we definitely have something to brag about. The results are the core of our work, it’s a mirror that we can adjust to ourselves,” concluded the sports director of the Trnava center.
The EMPIRE Tennis Tour for 2024 continues after two junior tournaments with two women’s tournaments W50 with a grant of 40,000 and W75 with a grant of 60,000 US dollars.
As part of the EMPIRE Tennis Tour between 2022 and 2024, more than 30 international tournaments for women, men and juniors took place at the TC EMPIRE Trnava campus. This series is exceptional in terms of organization within the whole of Europe, where such a number of quality tournaments have never been held in one place.
The highest ranked player in both tournaments is Tamara Zidansek, who is ranked 106th in the WTA rankings. Tamara is currently the Slovenian unit and the leader of the Slovenia Billie Jean King Cup team, which the Slovak players will meet at home on the 12th-13th. April 2024.
Photo gallery for the article Number of photos: 35
- Author: © List/ Ondrej Herceg
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2024-02-27 04:50:26
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