Hey, my name is Derek van den Berg and I have been granted the opportunity to represent Canada at the 2025 Over 30 World Tennis Championships in Turkey. To me, this is the culmination of a dream which started over 20 years ago.

I began playing tennis at the age of 14, which, if you know anything about tennis is quite late. At first it was a hobby, which turned into a good summer job, which turned into a fun university job, which turned into a passion. I decided upon graduating university that I was going to pursue coaching as a career, without much of a playing background to support it. I went through all my coaching certifications, but the elephant in the room for years of my life was my playing level. In order to be a top coach there was a certain level of requirements in terms of hitting, which early in my career I didn't meet. But this was something that I wanted, so I decided to go for it. A lot of 6am ball machines, late night hitting sessions, tournaments after fifty hour work weeks, and a brief stint at an academy in Spain started to get me where I needed to be.

To me, being selected to play at the World Championships, for my country, is the conclusion of a long road, to get me from a park player in Pickering to a pro at one of the top clubs in Canada. Getting to the World Championships had been a dream of mine, started 3 years ago when I began playing the Over 30 events, and training rigorously to get there. But above all else, it is the dispersion of a cloud that has been hanging over my head when it comes to my level of tennis.

The event takes place in Antalya, Turkey over two weeks, and the funds I

am raising will help pay for this trip.

Thank you to everyone who supported me along the way.