On January the 28th 2012, “FEDOTENIS” the Dominican Tennis Federation, celebrated its first tennis tournament of the year, one of the most important in the country – and since then Casa de Campo resident Alexa Briones has been ranked third in her category!
Alexa, a talented 13 year old girl, has played in eight of this year’s national competitions organized by the National Tennis Federation (FEDOTENIS), just 6 months after she began to seriously dedicate her time to tennis – with the goal to represent the Dominican Republic in the FED CUP, one of the most important female tennis competitions in the world. And now that Alexa has gone from having no rank to being ranked number three in her category “14 feminine” in the FEDOTENIS national competition, she is competing on the Dominican National Federation circuit (with competitions every weekend), within which she has reached the finals in two of the competitions!
It was in the summer of 2011 when Alexa, daughter of Martin and Eliane Briones began to show real interest in tennis. And so during the summer holidays Alexa began to train more intensively, playing with Casa de Campo tennis professional, Frank de los Santos, 2 times a day 6 days a week during the summer and 3 hours a day 6 days a week during the school year – in pursuit of her dream to become a profesional tennis player and represent the Dominican Republic.
Alexa Briones at the La Terraza Tennis Club, Casa de Campo
“We are super proud! Joining the Fed Cup team is Alexa’s long term goal. Her immediate focus is improving every day and with every competition overcoming some major challenges – namely having to gain knowledge and experience and confidence very quickly, especially compared to other girls who have been competing for years, as well as always being at a disadvantage because of the court surface (here she practices on clay courts and the majority of these tournaments are on hard courts). These challenges make her achievements even sweeter.”
——— Martin Briones, the proud father of Alexa
Although her parents see a tough fight ahead of her in order to reach her goal, they are indeed very proud to watch their daughter progress at such a rapid pace! With such determination and passion we have no doubt that we will soon be hearing more about Alexa’s continued success at national and soon international tennis!
Congratulations for your hard work and passion Alexa, keep it up!
UPDATE:
This past weekend (May 12th and 13th 2012), Alexa’s success on the FEDOTENNIS circuit continued! Alexa, whose official category is under 14, completed in the under 16 category and she won 2nd place!!!
Alexa Briones
Alexa Briones, who is only 13 years old, studies at the Abraham Lincoln School in Central Romana in La Romana, where she is an outstanding 7th grade student. Since she has always been a competitive girl, in the past Alexa has also participated in horseback riding tournaments in Casa de Campo, winning third place on various occasions. Today, competing on the Dominican National Federation circuit, Alexa has been named finalist in two ocassions. She started training (and still is) at the La Terraza Tennis Club, where she and trainer Frank de los Santos, warm up by running up and down the stairs of the Altos de Chavon amphitheater to strengthen her legs before playing at the tennis courts.
One of Alexa’s motos (taken from her Facebook): “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
About the FED CUP
The “FED CUP” founded in 1963 is one of the most important female tennis competitions in the world and is played between teams from more than 100 different countries.
Even more talent……
But Alexa is not the only talent in the family – Alexa’s younger sister, Maya is now following in her Alexa’s footsteps – already winning some competitions herself!
Spanish
