'What's next?' Riders' Armstead focused on showdown with Ottawa
10h ago
"I have a 'What's next?' mentality," said Ryquell Armstead, who faces his former team on Saturday.
A kid from Saskatchewan could become Canada’s next tennis star on the international stage.
Keegan Rice, a 17-year-old from Regina, has recently been on an upward trajectory toward one day becoming a professional player on the game’s biggest stage.
“I’ve really enjoyed the game every since I was young,” said Rice, who started playing at the age of five. “When I was five, I did city lessons, then did camps at the Lakeshore Tennis Club and then that fall I was invited to the Tennis Saskatchewan program.”
The invitation to the Tennis Saskatchewan program allowed Rice to play against other players from across Saskatchewan, but also to travel to places like Alberta and Manitoba for tournaments.
He says he was all right at tennis until about the age of 12, but after that, things started to click for him.
“I wasn’t wining all my tournaments. I started travelling more when I was eight and nine. I was doing OK, but there aren’t many kids from the prairies who play, so I was lucky to have a spot to go to nationals when I was young,” he said. “I started to perform (better) at 11 or 12.”
After years of playing in tournaments on the prairies, Rice was able to branch out a bit more.
In 2022, he won Tennis Canada’s U18 national championship at the age of 16 and also appeared in some tournaments in Europe.
Some other Canadians who won that same U18 national championship include Denis Shapovalov, Bianca Andreescu and Vasek Pospisil.
That’s when officials at Tennis Canada started to notice him, and they eventually invited him to train full-time at the National Tennis Centre in Montreal.
“Last fall – in September – I started training here and I got the official invitation in October,” he explained.
Rice has a taxing schedule while living in Montreal. He trains five to six days a week, travels for tournaments, has to attend school online, and lives with a billet family.
“For tennis I’m playing almost every day,” Rice said. “I’ll take one or two days off depending on the week. I’m in the gym once or twice a day as well. I have to take care of my body, so I go to physio – they provide physio here – and there’s a teacher here as well (to help with online schooling).”
While his schedule is full, the move to Montreal has seemed to pay off.
Living in Montreal has meant Rice has been able to play in more tournaments throughout the world, including on the youth side at the four majors all of the big names play at: Wimbledon, the French Open, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open.
Rice described what it has been like to play at those historic tournaments.
“I really enjoyed all of them,” he said. “I think Wimbledon was the most special one for me. Just the vibe of the entire tournament – the place, the fans – it was really different.
“When you step on court, the feeling you get, (the tournament) just feels more important, but the stress isn’t there. You’re having a good time and the stress just isn’t there. You just have to really enjoy the moment.”
Sadly, Rice couldn’t play in the U.S. Open this year because of a foot injury he suffered during training. That tournament is going on right now in Flushing, N.Y.
He’s currently recovering and hoping to be back in tournaments next season.
As for what’s next for Rice, he doesn’t know. His focus currently is on graduating high school, but after that he mentioned there are a couple of options for him to hopefully get on the pro circuit in the near future.
“There are so many different ways to become solidified on the professional tour,” he said. “You can go straight pro if you have great success when you’re young, you can try playing the lower-level tournaments and work your way up, or you can go to college and it gives you an extra four years basically to get you to the next levels.”