Rebecca Marino’s comeback trail is taking her to the Richmond Country Club this week for the Davis Trading Holiday Open.
The 27-year-old Vancouver native, who was once ranked as high as No. 38 in the world among women’s tennis players, is the top seed at this week’s event. She is slated to take on Chae Sun Yoo in the quarter-finals at 1 p.m. on Friday.
Marino has resumed her career after taking a four-year break from the mental and physical demands of being on the professional circuit. During that time she studied at UBC and was a member of the Thunderbirds rowing team while still teaching the game at the UBC Tennis Centre.
“I don’t have any ranking goals or result goals right now, I just want to go in and enjoy the process and come at it from a different place than I was before,” Marino told Tennis Canada. “I want to be happy to be on court and compete, that’s all that matters to me.”
Her career has included winning three Challenger events in 2010 and testing Venus Williams in the second round of the U.S. Open that year. She cracked the top 40 of the world rankings a year later and advanced to the third round of the French Open.
“I am very happy that Rebecca is coming back to competition. She is doing it for herself and that’s what is most important,” said Sylvain Bruneau, captain of the Canadian Fed Cup team and head of the national women’s program. “She missed tennis and she wanted to experience a different ending then the first one. She has come a long way in the past few years and this evolution will allow her to approach the life of a professional tennis player differently.”
The Davis Trading Holiday Open also features a 32-player men’s draw. Richmond CC head tennis professional Henry Choi is the No. 1 seed.
The public is welcome to attend all draws.
