Corinda's ACE tennis student
Ivana Daskalovic arrived at Corinda State High School in 2015 during her penultimate year of her secondary education, having been selected to become part of Corinda State High School’s highly renowned Tennis Excellence Program for elite tennis players. Trained under the direction of senior coach Kent Linyard from Queensland Tennis Centre (in partnership with Corinda State High School), Ivana’s goal has been to improve her formidable skills in the sport as well as improve her national ranking. An impressive goal for a seventeen-year-old young woman!
Inspired by watching her idol Novak Djokovic play tennis, Ivana began playing tennis at the early age of six, and at the time could never have predicted her future success in this sport. Whilst she enjoyed playing tennis throughout her primary and secondary years, it wasn’t until she joined Corinda State High’s Tennis Excellence Program that she began to excel as an athlete. To achieve Ivana’s level of success, she was provided with a personalised coaching program to reduce her academic workload. She was allowed to substitute tennis training for three of the six line subjects, which still allowed her to meet the National Curriculum requirements and qualify for university after high school. A must for her, as she has her sights set firmly on a full scholarship at Bath University in the UK, England’s most renowned university for tennis.
To date, Ivana has made impressive strides towards reaching her goal during her time at Corinda High State School. In eighteen months, she has gained an Australian women’s ranking and improved it by 358 ranks going from 570 to 212. As a result, she has now qualified for an international ranking, an incredible achievement within a short period of time. She has also been named the 2016 University Open Quarter finalist, Most Valuable Player (MVP) Tennis Corinda 2015, and Runner-Up at Queensland Team School Sport last year. Ivana trains and dedicates over three hours of her day both on and off campus to maintain her competitive edge and advantage.
‘The greatest things about being part of the Tennis Excellence Program is the amount of hours we get on court and also having unlimited access to the best tennis facilities in Queensland through our partnership with the Queensland Tennis Centre. Through the Centre we have access to numerous internationally recognised coaches to assist us with our training and goals. The school is very flexible and allows me to train and practise many hours of tennis per week whilst helping me to complete my schooling so I can go onto study at university. I've progressed so much with my tennis since I've arrived at Corinda. I wish I could have been here longer than just two years.”
Corinda has no doubt in Ivana’s ability to continue making headway in achieving her goals and we look forward to supporting her in her future endeavours to study and play tennis overseas! Way to go, Ivana!
