A.D. Ibarra

-Sifuentes Tennis Academy, Rio Rd.

It takes a special kind of kid to dedicate four hours a day to a craft mostly performed by true professionals such as Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The long hours and grueling pace in the perennially hot South Texas sun day in and day out can discourage most average american youngsters who would rather opt for the latest X Box video game or in Stela Sifuentes' case, the latest programs on The Disney Channel, Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network, but for Stela, it's another day on the cinder of her father's blue training court for forehands and backhands, volleys, serves and overheads. What she has her sights set on every time she strikes the felt off the tennis ball with impeccable accuracy and racquet speed is the same goal a young girl by the name of Sloan Stevens and her coaches had not too long ago. Sloan is most recently known for her stunning victory over Serena Williams at the 2013 Australian Open 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. Stevens also participated in what is known as the junior circuit of the US Davis Cup Team. Stela was selected to participate in the level 2 RTC camp in TBAR M in North Dallas where the numbers were dropped from the first level of  24 players to 18 players based on their USTA winning records and their performance at the level 1 RTC training camp. This time their main goal was to select, based on their performance at the camp 3 girls and 3 boys to represent the Texas section for the Junior Davis/ Fed Cup competition to be held in Oklahoma on October 18-21, 2013.