Kristian Kiland has been playing less and teaching more this summer and that seems to have helped his tennis game.
The 20-year-old resident pro at the Prince George Tennis Club won the Alpha-Zulu tournament two weeks ago in Kelowna, a week after he teamed up with his brother Jim Condon to win the Hankey Cup doubles tennis championship in Vernon.
"Usually I play a ton during the summer but I've found I've played less just because I'm coaching so much," said Kiland. " I'm at the court for eight hours coaching and somebody asks me to hit and I just want to go home. I'm playing less but my results are better. Maybe I just needed a break but it's working out for me. I definitely feel pretty good about my game."
Next weekend in Kamloops, Kiland will try to keep that winning string intact at the Sunshine Open.
"That's the one we've been going to the longest, it's one of the first adult tournaments I ever played in," said Kiland, who remembers playing in the Sunshine Open C-singles event as a 12-year-old. Two years of experience playing in the NAIA Great Plains Athletic Conference at Doane College in Crete, Neb., has taken Kiland's game to a new level. Last season he made the GPAC All-Conference team, finishing with a 10-4 record.
"There's so much practice there and I'm consistently practising with quality players," said Kiland, a chemistry major and aspiring chemical engineer. "Just playing through the winter helps so much and I don't come back rusty,"
He'll be back in Nebraska to start the fall term on Aug. 24 and has been told he will be the captain of the Tigers. The college season doesn't begin until March but Kiland will be playing exhibition matches throughout the fall and winter. Kiland and Condon, 30, both started playing at about the same time and they've been doubles partners for about five years. Winning the Hankey Cup 3-6, 6-3 (10-5) over Al Lincoln and Daniel Kotai of Kamloops was the ultimate achievement.
"That was just so big for me and my brother,' said Kiland. "Five years ago we won the B event there and it was time to move up to the A event and we just got slaughtered for a couple years there. Two years ago we came pretty close and made the semifinals and we were real competitive at this top level and now this year we finally had the breakthrough and won the whole thing. That was really special."
At the Alpha-Zulu tournament, Kiland defeated top-seeded West Martin 7-5, 6-1 in the final. "That was the first time I won an out-of-town singles event and I was very pumped about that," said Kiland.
At the same tournament, Kiland and Condon lost in the doubles final in straight sets to West Martin and Jeremy Bell. Kiland was also mixed doubles winner at the Hankey Cup, teaming up with 69-year-old Fran Mann of Kelowna, while Condon and his mother Nancy (also Kristian's mom) finished third.
In June, Kiland had more than he could handle taking on 24-year-old James Nearing in the Prince George Citizen Open singles final. Nearing, who played one season at Queens University in Toronto, beat Kiland in two straight sets, avenging a marathon loss to Kiland the previous year in the P.G. Open final.
"James is just a fantastic player and he has a really good attitude on the court, he just works so hard," said Kiland. "I play a really steady game that makes me win a lot at the college level and I put shots in places that are awkward for people but for James that just doesn't work because he'll just blow you off the court. He hits with too much pace, he was just crushing the ball."
Nearing is the lone Prince George player entered in this weekend's Interior Open in West Kelowna and will face Mark Harrison today at 11 a.m.
