By Rich Brown
rbrown@joplinglobe.com
Marianella Padron, executive director of tennis at Millennium Tennis & Fitness Club, has a personal connection to the current U.S. Open. And it can’t help but be a great source of pride.
Padron, who coached both girls and boys teams at Thomas Jefferson last year, has tennis coaching experience that goes far beyond the Joplin school. But, what’s more unique is that it even extends to three players entered in this year’s Open at Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
Not only that, but one of the three, Gisela Dulko of Argentina, has advanced to the women’s fourth round. She will be going against Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine at 10 a.m. today.
The other two are Laura Granville (U.S.) and Rossana de los Rios (Paraguay). Padron had a hand in early development of all three.
The Joplin woman was introduced to the players at the U.S. Tennis Association Training Center Headquarters in Florida.
“I coached at the headquarters in Key Biscayne, which has since moved to Boca Raton, five years and coached them, as well as many others, in the process of becoming a pro,” she said. “They were all in high school and Laura went on to play two years for Stanford University before deciding to turn pro.”
All three hold world rankings. In 2005 Dulko reached her career-high singles ranking of 26th and Granville’s career-high of 28th came in 2003. De los Rios achieved a career-high ranking of 51 in 2001 and has been as high as 52 in doubles.
“They were all three good but we didn’t know how good they would become,” said Padron, who has coached tennis for 18 years. “You never know. There are many pieces to the puzzle when you are building a player.”
The mission of USTA training centers, which can also be found in New York and California, is to develop world-class players through a well-defined training structure and through stiff competition. Of course, comprehensive coaching philosophies are highly important.
“We trained six days a week all-year round,” Padron said. “When you are training that caliber of tennis player, there is no holiday or even birthday off. You have to be dedicated. It’s the love of the game and dedication that carry these players far.”
Although Padron admitted that commitment such as this comes hard at such a young age, it is important in order to succeed.
“The bottom line is that if you really want it, you have to work hard,” she said. “You have to love the game and commit yourself to it.”
Padron personally knows about commitment. She started playing tennis when she was 16 and four years later became the top player in her native country of Venezuela.
“Even though I started playing quite late in life, the athletic talent was there,” she said. “So when I dedicated myself to tennis, I became good quite rapidly because the athletic skills were there.”
Her three U.S. Open proteges are not the only ones to bring back memories of her coaching past.
In the recent Futures tournament at Millennium, she was approached by one of the players who would go on to reach the quarterfinal round.
“A young man in his early 20’s approached me and asked ‘Marianella, don’t you remember me?,” she said. “You used to coach me when I was 11 years old and, yes, you used to call me little pro.”
Dennis Civkovic had been one of coach Padron’s students at the training center.
“He was bigger and stronger and, oh, it was wonderful to see him,” she said. “He had been training with all the kids there. We had so much talent and diversity of ages at the center. It was wonderful just to be there.”
