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Canwest News Service
Celebrations come naturally to Rebecca Marino, but the Vancouver teenager froze after beating Canada's second-ranked female tennis player, Stephanie Dubois, last month at the Kansas City Challenger.
"I wasn't sure how to react," said Marino, who topped Dubois — the reigning Odlum Brown VanOpen champion — 6-3, 6-3 in the quarter-final of the $50,000 US event.
"She's such a nice girl and we hit together a lot. I was a bit surprised about it all. Everyone was a bit shocked, like, 'Oh, Rebecca's not supposed to win.' But there's on court and there's off court and I'm learning how to divide it."
Marino will walk that line between friend and foe again this week, perhaps several times. She's one of eight Canadians competing in the 32-player Tevlin Challenger in Toronto, a $50,000 event that started Tuesday.
Four of those hometown women are ranked inside the WTA top-200, including the 18-year-old Marino at 180.
Dubois, from Laval, Que., is the top-seeded Canadian at 109, while Toronto's Sharon Fichman (No. 130) and Valerie Tetrault of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. (No. 132) are also there.
Marino, who finished 2008 at No. 471 and reached a career high of 158 this season, hits regularly at the national training centre in Montreal with Dubois and Tetrault.
"It's a really good atmosphere," said Marino, who turned professional in May, leaving her full-ride scholarship to Georgia Tech on the table. "We push each other, yet we support each other."
Marino was based for a while out of Hilton Head, S.C., and spent time in Switzerland, but the move to Montreal appears to be helping.
She briefly experimented with a coach, but is out on her own. When she's at the national training centre, she's under the watchful eye of Sylvain Bruneau, Canada's head women's coach.
Bruneau knows what he has in world No. 35 Aleksandra Wozniak, but the Fed Cup picture is becoming increasingly cloudy after that.
The ladies log jam after Wozniak also includes Heidi El Tabakh of Oakville, Ont., who is ranked No. 160 but will not play in Toronto this week.
"I can't help but take a look at where the other girls are placed," said Marino, who is coming off a second-round loss at a $50,000 Challenger in Phoenix.
"Of course I want to hop ahead of them. I'd love to be chosen for Fed Cup team, but there's a large group of us. It's ultimately one of my goals, so if it's not next year, then the year after."
Marino opened play in Toronto with a 6-4, 6-2 win over her doubles partner Gabriela Dabrowski, a top-100 junior from Ottawa.
She faces the No. 4 seed, U.S. veteran Lindsay Lee-Waters, in the second round.
The 6-foot-2, hard-serving Marino already has a high-enough ranking that she can plan for the Australian Open qualifying draw in the new year.
mweber@theprovince.com
