1. 6/24/2015 Dream becomes reality for Illini women’s tennis’ Louise Kwong - The Daily Illini
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Illinois’ Louise Kwong serves the ball during the match against
Rutgers at Atkins Tennis Center, on April 5. Kwong will represent
Team Canada in this summer’s FISU Games.
Dream becomes reality for Illini women’s
tennis’ Louise Kwong
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04/22/15 12:30am
Louise Kwong has grown up around tennis. The sophomore for the Illinois women’s tennis
team started playing the game when she was five and began standing out around the age of
13 in her hometown of Toronto, Ontario.
At that age she won the Canadian Nationals and placed fifth in the Junior Orange Bowl — an
international tournament for junior tennis players.
Following her success, Kwong was ranked as a top-five junior player for the rest of her junior
career in Canada.
She saw her childhood friend Genie Bouchard — who she trained with — climb up the world
rankings. Bouchard currently sits at No. 7 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings —
professional tennis’ top level.
Kwong saw another of her friends get selected to participate in the World Summer
Universiade of the International University Sport Federation (FISU) games two years ago in
Russia.
At that time Kwong set a personal goal for herself: She wanted to find international success
like her peers. She wanted to be selected to attend the next FISU games.
Earlier this month, Kwong’s dreams became a reality.

2. 6/24/2015 Dream becomes reality for Illini women’s tennis’ Louise Kwong - The Daily Illini
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She was selected to represent Team Canada — along with Jena Cheng (University of Utah) and
Evangeline Repic (University of Tennessee) — this summer in Gwangju, South Korea, for the
28th FISU games.
While she received a letter from Team Canada asking if she was interested — which she was
— back in January, Kwong never imagined that her name would be selected from a pool of
over a thousand candidates.
When Kwong was notified of her selection, she essentially thought she was being pranked.
“I was actually sitting in class doing an exam review with (Alexis Casati), and I just re-read
the email over and over again because I thought it was some sort of spam email,” Kwong said.
“I was really excited, but I didn’t respond for like three days because I wasn’t sure if they
accidently sent it to me.”
Kwong was selected based on her collegiate achievement and ranking both nationally and in
the NCAA. She holds a 26-13 record in dual matches, and 22-11 combined doubles record in
her time at Illinois.
The fact that Tennis Canada — a member of the International Tennis Federation — still
follows Kwong’s career came as a pleasant surprise to her.
“It’s definitely a big thing for me, just because you would think Tennis Canada would lose
touch once you go to college because they focus so much on the juniors,” Kwong said. “It’s
nice to know that they still follow my results and see how I am progressing.”
The members of Tennis Canada are not the only ones who noticed Kwong’s progression:
Illinois head coach Michelle Dasso has seen great improvements in her game.
“(I’m) super excited for her, because she’s improved so much,” Dasso said. “When I went over
to Canada to recruit her, I obviously saw a lot in her, but the difference is really night and
day.”
Dasso said that when she initially recruited Kwong, what impressed her most — and still does
to this day — was Kwong’s personality.
“Silent Killer” is what Dasso labeled Kwong — in reference to her game — and added that she
excels on and off of the court.
“I don’t think people realize how competitive she is, because she’s such a nice person and
she’s not high maintenance,” Dasso said. “She hates to lose, and I think she was so excited to
be selected for that reason.”
Assistant coach Evan Clark has seen the same competitiveness in Kwong, and feels that
playing in the FISU games this summer will greatly benefit her game.

3. 6/24/2015 Dream becomes reality for Illini women’s tennis’ Louise Kwong - The Daily Illini
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“It’s always a special thing when you can represent your country in anything that you’re
doing,” said Clark. “It’s a really neat opportunity for her because she’s going to be playing
people from all over the world at a really high level, so that experience that she’ll gain will be
great and she’ll bring it back to here.”
Clark also acknowledged that Kwong representing Team Canada this summer will be great
exposure for the Illini.
From a recruiting perspective, building upon a legacy and becoming a household name in the
tennis world, which is what Kwong is doing, will be a huge selling point to recruits. However,
Kwong is not focused on building her legacy.
While being selected to play in the FISU games — which are second only to the Olympics in
terms of international team competition — is a great individual honor, Kwong is more excited
to suit up for Canada than to be recognized for her individual efforts.
“It’s definitely more important to be representing my country,” said Kwong. “I haven’t
traveled out of North America in a while representing Tennis Canada.”
The future is bright for Kwong, who Clark called one of the most coachable student-athletes
that he’s ever worked with.
Just like she set the goal of making the FISU games during her time in college, Kwong has set
another, much more difficult goal in regards to her future.
Kwong hopes to eventually turn pro after her time at the University of Illinois is up.
“We’ll see how that goes,” Kwong said. “Hopefully I’ll have a shot at it.”
joffe2@dailyillini.com (mailto:joffe2@dailyillini.com)
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