Intimidation can play a big part in sporting contests. But when it backfires it can be embarrassing for the perpetrators.
Connor Di Marco knows this well. The 12-year-old from Mill Park walked straight into Ivanhoe Grammar’s premier tennis team, despite it being made up of mostly year 11 and 12 students.
The year 7 student played his first matches recently and beat much older players, despite the obvious differences in size and experience.
‘‘Because I’m really small and they’re much bigger than me they think they’re going to smash me, they get surprised when I end up smashing them,” giggles Di Marco, saying his opponents looked “a bit angry” after the game.
“I’m new to the school and they just told me I am playing for the tennis team. We won the first round, which was good. It [tennis] usually takes up about 20 hours a week.”
Di Marco has been playing tennis since he was four, and though he doesn’t remember much about his formative years he has risen to great heights since.
He is ranked number one in Victoria for players born in 2000, and third nationally. He won the national under-12 doubles title in December last year, finished ninth in the singles tournament, captained the Victorian team at the Bruce Cup and was undefeated during that event, finishing as the number-one ranked boy in Australian primary schools.
Then there was singles and doubles titles at the Victorian Grasscourt Championships in Wodonga in January.
Di Marco recently received a scholarship to play tennis at Kooyong, where he will have access to all the facilities and play in the pennant competition.
“I could be playing against 40 and 50 year- olds,” says Di Marco. “I was really happy and excited that I got in. I’m pretty nervous but most of my friends got scholarships as well so we will probably be in the same teams.”
Unsurprisingly Di Marco is a tennis tragic, and lists multiple major title winners Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as his heroes.
He attended the first three days of the Australian Open in January, watching junior tennis, before he got to attend the final between Djokovic and Andy Murray.
“I was so lucky, it was really good,” he says, adding that he believes the right man won.
As for the near future, Di Marco is hoping to make it into the National Academy, one of Tennis Australia’s high-performance programs that offers coaching, training and medicinal care.
He also has his sights firmly set on the singles title at the national championships later this year. ■
