He is only 11, but Codey Gunn (Narre Warren) is heading to Italy for the biggest tennis trip of his life after being selected for Tennis Australia’s European Clay Court Tour for players aged 12/u.
Codey has played in France and Holland before, but this marks the first time he is travelling overseas without his parents, something he is looking forward to for a number of reasons.
“It’s really cool … I am excited for the whole trip. I don’t get to see my friends much because they are from different states, so I only get to see them about four times in a year,” said Codey.
He said a long-term goal would be to become a top ten player in the world, but concedes “even playing in one (Grand Slam) would be pretty cool”.
Currently the fourth best player in Australia for his birth year, Codey has some impressive recent singles results to his name, including quarterfinal appearances at the 2012 Renmark Grass Court Championships and the Hudson Bond Manning Championships and a third place at the Barwon River Tourist Geelong Junior Grass Court Championships.
Codey’s father, Greg, is a tennis coach and believes his son has the right mental attitude to succeed at tennis.
“Winning an event, winning the nationals, or getting asked to go to Europe are all great accolades, and he’s very proud of himself, but there is a lot more work to be done and he knows that,” said Greg.
“It’s what he does; he just gets on with the next job.”
Despite his coaching role, Greg said Codey began playing of his own accord.
“He just walked out on court and started dodging tennis balls through a lesson one day.”
“He grabbed his racquet and would sit on the cone and try and hit them (the balls) so I was like ‘alright, he likes this kind of thing’ and we went from there.”
Codey describes his game as an aggressive baseliner and would take Novak Djokovic’s backhand if he could have any professional player’s shot.
In his free time, he enjoys riding his chopper bike he built with his dad, while his favourite current movie is The Avengers.
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