A junior tennis player from Prince Edward Island, identified as Peng, has recorded a result at the Federation World Tour J60 Championship that her coach says no junior tennis player from the province had managed before. According to her coach, the achievement is a first for a PEI junior in the sport. And by her own account, Peng is not slowing down after it.
Her own measure of success is deliberately demanding. She said she wants to feel proud of herself and to be confident, but she does not want to reach a point where she feels that what she has done is enough. Instead, she said she wants to keep working harder and to get more goals done, framing the recent result as a step rather than a finish line.
Her ambitions reach beyond the junior circuit. Peng said she hopes to play Division I tennis at university, a path she described as highly competitive. Most of the players she competes against, she added, are aiming for the very same goal, which leaves little room for letting up.
She is candid, though, about starting from a harder position than many of her rivals. Peng said other provinces have more resources for the sport, while Prince Edward Island has no indoor tennis courts at all. That gap means players like her have to train on outdoor courts even when the weather and conditions are far from ideal.
To close that distance, she leans on extra effort and improvisation. Because there is no proper indoor court available, Peng said she has to be a tougher person both on and off the court, doing a great deal of off-court training and simply working harder overall. She has even trained in her coach's garage and used other creative solutions to make the island's limited facilities work for her.
Through the challenges, she said she tries her best and wants to set an example for those coming up behind her. Her message to other young players was direct and encouraging. Wherever you are, she said, and however big the place is, if you have the resources you wanted, you can always do it, so keep working, never give up, make no excuses, and you've got this.