THE Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain’s new tennis coach is looking to make her mark in the kingdom and offer enthusiasts of the game the opportunity to hone their skills or simply have fun playing at the resort’s five-star setting.
Karina Crivtonencu has been a student of the game since childhood and as a professional today is looking to pass on everything she knows to players of all skill levels.
Crivtonencu has joined The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain’s Royal Beach Club team and has been serving up lessons on the hard court to members of all ages.
The Romanian is a product of the prestigious Emilio Sanchez Academy in Spain, where she developed her game as a youngster.
She later competed in the US for Christopher Newport University, representing one of the country’s top-ranked tennis programmes in both singles and doubles competition at the division three level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Crivtonencu’s sister has been living in Bahrain the past five years and has made brief visits during this period.
She finally decided to take on her new role at The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain around two months ago and is already making an impact in her ‘second home’.
“I’ve been coming to see my sister back and forth, but this is the first time I’m spending longer than a week here,” Crivtonencu told the GDN on the sidelines of an introductory media meeting held at the beach resort. “I love it in Bahrain and it already feels like a second home to me.”
Crivtonencu has been impressed by the tight-knit and rapidly developing tennis community in the kingdom and sees the great potential for the sport moving forward.
“I’ve been aware about the tennis community here and it’s been developing over the past year or so, and that’s what made me more eager to come here and train and help continue the rise of tennis in Bahrain,” she said. Together with fellow-coach Bogdan Stanila, the resort’s tennis offerings continue to generate great interest, and Crivtonencu is determined to help her clients achieve their tennis aspirations, particularly amongst the club’s female members.
“One of my goals coming here is to work with women and young girls, because sometimes they are reluctant to start participating in sport, so when they see another female with them playing and training – someone who is so passionate about the game like myself – that can encourage them to start and just to have fun on the court.
“Since I started, I’ve had a lot of female clients and our programme is constantly growing, and I’m very happy about that.”
Crivtonencu’s coaching career has taken her across Europe’s luxury resort destinations in Sardinia and Sicily before joining The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain.
Her experience spans private coaching, junior development and personalised training, while her sessions combine technical stroke refinement, biomechanics, match strategy, live-ball scenarios, strength, agility and conditioning – creating an experience tailored to each player’s individual goals, both in the short and long term.
“Tennis training can be very demanding and you can look at it from many different perspectives, but in the end, we’re here to have a good time and to learn something new, so I try to have a balance of enjoying tennis on the court but also putting some hard work in so we can improve and really have competitive games between each other,” she explained.
“Right now, I’m training a 14-year-old girl and she’s probably the best one in Bahrain at her age. With her, the practice definitely looks different as compared to some other members. We do extensive hours on the court and focus a lot on her fitness and agility.
“But it all depends on the client – I adapt to the goals they set. If they want to become a pro in the future or just play for fun, I can do either one.”
Crivtonencu is inviting tennis enthusiasts or those looking to start playing the game to be a part of the resort’s programme.
“We are always looking forward to welcoming anybody to our academy, whether they played tennis in the past or have never touched a racquet in their life,” she said. “It’s definitely worth coming to try and we’ll go on from there.”
Meanwhile, Stanila expressed his delight to be working with Crivtonencu and further building on their already strong collaboration.
“Karina’s experience is a very big asset to our club and academy,” Stanila, a former Top 15 junior player in Romania with now more than 12 years of national and international coaching experience, told the GDN. “She will definitely inspire more ladies to play this sport, especially with tennis increasing in popularity every year.”
• For more information contact The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain on 17580000, visit ritzcarlton.com/bahrain or email reservations.bahrain@ritzcarlton.com
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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