Tennis travels keeping Tangs busy
Posted on Sunday, July 6, 2008
ROGERS — Nearly nonstop tennis has 11-year-old Tiffany Tang racking up the wins this summer.
Tang already has three tournament wins and three top-4 finishes at big tournaments this year.
She’ll looking for more this weekend at the Raymond James Summer Junior Open State Championships.
The tournament concludes today with matches at Pinnacle Country Club and Rogers High School.
Tang is playing in the Girls 14 s Singles after winning the Girls 12 s last year and is playing with little sister Katherine Tang, 10, in the Girls 12 s Doubles.
The sisters won last year’s tournament in that division.
Katherine Tang is also playing up a division this weekend, playing in the Girls 12 s.
Both can handle themselves against the older competition.
“ It’s really exciting, ” said their mother, Nga Tang. “ We always tell them to just go out there and play their best game. That’s all we ask for.
“ Win or lose, it doesn’t matter as long as they keep trying and work harder and know that every match they still have to learn (from it ). ”
Tiffany Tang, ranked No. 1 in the state in Girls 12 s, usually plays against older competition in local tournaments.
This weekend is Katherine Tang’s first trip to an older division.
“ I have to get ready for it, ” she said, quiet as a mouse during a rain delay Saturday morning.
The little Tang started playing tennis when she was 5 and looks up to her older sister, who’s been playing since she was 4.
“ My mom took me to some tennis classes, ” Tiffany Tang said. “ And I liked the sport. ”
And it’s been nonstop tennis since then.
“ Tennis is a fun sport so I just signed her up to play at the Walton Life Fitness Center and since that, she’s never put the rackets down, ” Nga Tang said. “ She just continues playing. ”
The Tang family, which lives in Rogers, has been doing a lot of traveling this summer as Tiffany has played in tournaments in Texas, South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama and across the state.
Tiffany Tang won tournaments at Fayetteville and Little Rock this spring and won the Arkansas State Qualifying tournament to earn a trip to Southern Spring Closed Championships.
She took fourth in that 12-year-old tournament in Mobile, Ala., in May.
She then took second in the USTA Boys and Girls 12 s National Opens at Springfield, Mo., in May and was third at the USTA National Opens at Deer Park, Texas.
That tournament was last week and the Tang family returned home just in time for this weekend’s tournament.
Tiffany Tang has a couple more big tournaments this summer but first she’s focused on winning her draw and playing with her sister.
She said she likes playing doubles with Katherine Tang.
“ It’s fun, ” she said. “ I have a partner to play with and not all the pressure is on you. ”
It’s a rare opportunity for the sisters to play together — and an opportunity to build some sisterly love.
“ It’s a good experience, especially for the little one, ” their mother said. “ They need to learn how to be patient with (each other ). The more they play together, the more they have to work around it. ”
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