New West St. Paul tennis hub offers space for pros along with up-and-coming Manitoba talent

When Karson Gloria lines up at the tennis net under the sweltering sun, even though the 13-year-old is focused on his job as a ball kid, he also gets an up-close look at the type of pro players he hopes to become one day. 

"I feel like watching the players just really inspires me to just play tennis really often and become really good," said Gloria.

He's one of many young people volunteering their time at the National Bank Challenger tournament, being held in this week at the new Tennis Manitoba Hub in West St. Paul, just north of Winnipeg.

The facility is tailored to the regulations required to host professional tournaments in the province, but will also serve as a launching pad for young people and feed the hunger of the province's growing tennis scene. 

The new $1.4-million tennis facility, which has been in the works since 2016, opened two weeks ago with five outdoor courts. A sixth is on the way. 

"We have a world-class facility right now that is ready to develop world-class players," and also help grow the sport in the province, said Tennis Manitoba executive director Mark Arndt.

"Kids that can get scholarships and get schooling and make connections … it just does wonders. Having something we can proudly present without limitations allows us to do anything we want to do as far as tennis is concerned."

Arndt, who has been around the game since1981, says the exact number of players in Manitoba is hard to capture, but says he noticed more people took the sport up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"That pause on the world allowed us to capture more people, and they just saw how tennis was what you can make it be," he said.

"That's the beauty about tennis.… You can make it be as intense as you want, as casual as you want