LONDON | Travel shapes the young. It’s an expression that fits well with Montrealer Jaden Weekes.
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The 17-year-old athlete left home on May 20 for a trip to several junior tournaments. However, one of his suitcases dropped off at Montreal-Trudeau airport never reached its destination.
She would have stayed in Montreal for six days. Then, the precious suitcase finally crossed the Atlantic Ocean, but it has not yet been found. This is like baggage handling at the Montreal airport in recent weeks.
“We still haven’t found her, confirmed Jaden Weekes in excellent French. There’s nothing new. All they know is that my suitcase is returned to Heathrow airport.
“When we arrived, my first suitcase came out quickly, but the second never came. We waited for two hours to be sure. The people at the claims office did not know what had happened.
“It was in addition to our flight which had been canceled the day before our departure for technical problems. This is the first trip where I have had so many problems.
In that suitcase, Weekes had valuable equipment. There were two pairs of shoes designed for grass matches and a machine to tighten the strings of his racquets.
He had to react quickly. He had a game the next day.
“I was playing at Nottingham. I ordered a pair of shoes from a UK site and received them in time for my match.
Second round loss
On the court, Weekes was knocked out in the second round at Wimbledon on Tuesday. He lost in two sets at the count of 7-5 and 7-6 (4) in front of Croatian Mili Poljicak, third seed.
“I wanted to win that match to go to the next round, mentioned the left-hander, who is ranked 21st at the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Poljicak played well. My serve was problematic.
“I didn’t have an efficiency rate on my first ball. It prevented me from having easy points. I had to work harder to earn my points.
“My opponent was serving really well, and he was able to attack me on my second balls. That’s what made the difference.”
For the rest of the summer, Weekes will participate in several challenger-style tournaments in Canada. He should be in action at Winnipeg, Vancouver and Granby.
