The U of M Tennis Club athletes Gabriela Rzeszutek and Estefania Garcia reflected on their tennis careers, sharing what motivates them to continue playing the sport.
Rzeszutek noted that the competitive nature of tennis has always been a key source of motivation for her. “Growing up, I played a lot of other sports,” she said. “I did play volleyball and I also did a lot of gymnastics growing up and swimming. But overall, my family was playing tennis, so it was just kind of like a summer sport for all of us. And then eventually, I wanted to try more competitive tennis so then I dropped the other sports and just stuck with tennis.”
Rzeszutek outlined the key qualities and efforts required to become a successful tennis player. “I think determination and consistency and the eagerness to learn to play,” she said. “In the summertime, there’s lots of availability to play on public courts, so you can just pick up a racket and go play. In the wintertime, it’s a little more challenging just because of court access, but I think if you’re determined to play, you can figure that out as well.”
Rzeszutek highlighted the benefits of joining the U of M Tennis Club and how anyone can be a part of it. “It’s a great club to be a part of,” she said. “There’s lots of room for growth and especially for students, you can be a part of that travelling team to go play and compete. I think tennis is a great sport to pick up and you can definitely do it later on in life as well. You don’t need to start playing as a child. So, it’s quite easy to pick up and join and play competitively if you have that right attitude,” she said.
Although Rzeszutek mentioned that one need not to have played tennis from a young age to enjoy or succeed in the sport, Garcia shared that, for her, tennis has been a long-standing passion.
She explained that it has always been a constant presence in her thoughts. “I played soccer for almost 15 years. I’m from Mexico so I played back there,” she said. “Tennis was always something that was on my mind. I have followed professional tennis since I was very young, but my sport was soccer, so I didn’t play quite often. Once I got here to Winnipeg, it’s one of the sports that I wanted to try because I always had this feeling to be involved in the sport because I think it’s amazing.”
Garcia shared her perspective on what makes playing tennis both exciting and challenging. “Well, playing tennis is great,” she said. “I think it’s a sport that is very challenging but at the same time it’s very exciting and I think it puts yourself to the limit in terms of physically and emotionally.”
She noted the challenges that come with the sport. “I think the fact that you are alone in the court and all the work is on you and also it’s a sport where you have to deal with a lot of mistakes,” she said. “It’s one of the sports where you probably make more mistakes than winners. So, you have to work with that and try to keep performing at your best with the fact that you are making mistakes.”
Garcia touched on what it takes to be a successful student-athlete. “I think it’s all on organization and effort,” she said. “That’s the main two things because we have our commitments as students but also have to come here and practice and try our best for a couple of hours in the court. So, it was all about the effort to handle both.”
Rzeszutek and Garcia emphasized the promising future of the tennis club, expressing optimism about what lies ahead.
“With the amount of time that we had and the ability that the results we produced, if we train more, we can do even better in the future,” Rzeszutek said. “And then keeping what we’re doing and keep pushing and having that right attitude to keep going, we should be able to do the same or even better results in the future.”
“I think it’s promising because I know the talent is here in the province and in the city, and there’s a lot of things to do so more players have the opportunity to find opportunities from playing tennis,” said Garcia.
2025/04/09 — article image updated
