Tennis coach at loggerheads with SVG Tennis Association over Villa Facility

Local tennis coach and player Taj Ballantyne, is calling on the relevant authorities to look into the operations at the National Tennis Facility in Villa.

The facility was built in 2000 and was described back then as the engine room for the continued development of local tennis, but Ballantyne, one of the country’s top players, thinks the sport is regressing under the current management of the facility and executive of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Tennis Association (SVGTA).

Speaking to SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, Ballantyne said the fees being charged to use the courts at Villa are too high, while some of the coaching techniques being used are questionable.

Ballantyne has been playing tennis since he was seven and managed to gain a tennis scholarship in 2017 to the Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, USA, where he played at the college level before completing his studies and returning to St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).

“I really want to see tennis move forward,” Ballantyne said on Wednesday while stressing that he is charged EC$10 an hour to use the facility, a fee he describes as exorbitant, as one player needs at least three hours on the court every session and he can only charge a player EC$200 a month so if he is to pay EC$10 an hour, his business will operate at a loss.

He said that for a while now he has been at loggerheads with the SVGTA over several issues including fees, usage of the facility at Villa, and the holding of elections.

He said the current executive has been in place since 2016 and no elections have been held since that time.

The Frenches resident says his outspoken nature has been described as “rude” by management, but in his opinion, “they just have a problem with me.”

The national player runs the Elite Tennis Academy and said that during a recent heated discussion with the President of the SVGTA Brian Nash, someone called the police.

“I was trying to explain that something he was saying was making no sense,” said Ballantyne, who added that at the time he was preparing some of his athletes for an international and regional tournament that was to take place at the facility in July.

He said while he still uses the facility to train his athletes- he has about three national athletes on his roster, he is uncomfortable and would like to see changes aimed at pushing the sport forward.

“I have been playing tennis all my life. I don’t think they are training people properly,” said the talented athlete who grew up training under Samantha Goodluck, Peter Nanton and Theophilus King.

“I want to see an election and the relevant authorities get involved because that executive has been there since 2016, and tennis like it regressed, no progress, and I’m trying to build it back and is like an issue,” Ballantyne who has about 10 to 20 persons under his wings said.

He outlined that three of his athletes took part in the Under-14 and Under-18 categories of a recent tournament held at the facility in Villa, and his Under-14 male and female players made it to the quarter finals of this competition, while his Under-18 player was knocked out in the first round of play.

A member of the SVGTA said on Wednesday that they are aware of several issues with Ballantyne and described some of them as “petty” while describing the athlete as “rude”.

The member said the president of the SVGTA Brian Nash would be the best person to address Ballantyne’s statements; however calls to Nash’s cell phone went unanswered up to the time of publication.