Young tennis player excelled this year

Ten-year-old Michelle Kedzierski won the 12-under singles in this year's Sweet 16 Missouri Valley tennis tournament. She and her partner also won the doubles title.

This summer, she split six matches in the Super-National Clay Court tournament in Boca Raton, Fla., again playing in the 12-under division.

Her success against players up to two year older is a good sign for the future. She'll be playing in the same age division for two more years.

But, this fall, she's taking some time off from tournament competition. She said she needs to concentrate on practice with her tennis coach, Bill Kress. She said she needs to develop more consistency in her strokes and footwork.

Her goal in tennis: "I want my strokes to be perfect."

She said she might get back into tournament tennis late this year.

Michelle said she started playing tennis at age 5. "My dad told me to go out on the court and hit some balls. Then I had a lesson," she said.

Michelle often plays against older girls and boys. "In my first tournament, I split all my matches with both girls and boys," she said.

She doesn't have to go very far to get some stiff competition. Her older sister, 14-year-old Jennifer, is the No. 1 player for the St. Joseph Academy tennis team.

Asked if she can beat her older sister, Michelle smiled and said, "I'm getting close."

This fall, Michelle is a 6th grader at St. Ambrose Catholic School on The Hill.

She said her favorite thing about tennis is "hitting the ball as hard as I can." She likes the work involved in improving her game. She said, by concentrating on her game, she doesn't worry about her opponents.

Michelle said her favorite tennis player is pro Justine Henin-Hardenne. She's the player who upset Serena Williams in the finals of this year's French Open in Paris.

Asked why she likes the Belgian pro, Michelle said, "She's really short and tiny. And she's got such good strokes.

"She sticks up for the little people."

Michelle is 5'3" now but she might not be small much longer. Her older sister is 5'9".

One of her closest competitors in the 12-under age division is Alexandria Lehman of St. Louis.

Michelle met "Alex" in the singles finals in the Sweet 16 tournament. Then, the two joined forces to win the Sweet 16 doubles finals.

Michelle said the Sweet 16 tournament was the "funnest" meet she's played in. She said she liked Kansas City and there was time between matches to "goof off with my friends."

Recently, Michelle was mentioned in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article about youth tennis. The article said Michelle was one local player who were doing well in regional meets.

The article talked mostly about the disadvantage local players have because of our weather. Young players in California and across the South have the opportunity to play outdoors all year round.

Michelle meets with her coach at Tower Grove Park's outdoor courts during the spring, summer and fall. She said she "does clinics" indoors in the colder weather.

Michelle said her ground strokes are the strongest part of her game. She uses a one-hand forehand but uses two hands on her backhand. She said she's tried using a two-hand forehand but "it usually goes out of bounds or over the fence."

Her coach puts her through a strong practice schedule. She works on all sorts of different strokes and also does "lots of running." About the part of the game that needs the most work, Michelle said, "Footwork."

When she was younger, Michelle played on a select soccer team as well as playing tennis.

As she got more into tennis, she said she didn't have time for both sports.

But, she does make time to do well in school. Michelle said her grades are "first honors." She said that's one-step below the best grades. "I usually get all A's and one B," she said.

Her favorite class is math. Last year, she said the math teacher let kids sample a wide range of math. "Sometimes, we'd do college math. She skipped around a lot," she said.