Skilled Tennis Academy

05/10/2026

Hang 10 🖐️🖐️

Alex de Minaur is through to his TENTH final at ATP 500 level as Hurkacz retires during the second set in Beijing.

05/10/2026

Born in Brisbane… first holding a racquet in his hand at age three, to receiving formal tennis lessons age ten, to undertaking a college tennis career at the University of South Carolina where he graduated in May 2025, to overcoming a serious ankle injury in the last 18 months, this 23 year old Aussie is a pro tour title champion.

01/10/2026

It’s official. 🇦🇺 Talia Gibson and 🇦🇺 Kim Birrell achieve top-50 debut in the same week!

Well deserved 👏

01/10/2026

Simply. On. Fire. 🔥

No signs of tiredness for 🇦🇺 Kim Birrell after winning her maiden WTA title in Korea just a few days ago.

Next: 18th seed 🇨🇿 Marie Bouzkova

01/10/2026

Storming into the second round of a WTA 1000 main draw ⛈️

Next: 25th seed 🇬🇷 Maria Sakkari

01/10/2026

29/09/2026

April 1976. Back row (left-right): Sue Barker, Cynthia Doerner, Natasha Chmyreva, Betty Stove, Virginia Wade, Mima Jausovec, Carrie Meyer, Terry Holladay, Olga Morozova and Martina Navratilova. Front row: Marita Redondo, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Rosie Casals, Chris Evert and Lesley Hunt.

28/09/2026

28/09/2026

Hopeful parents on the Sunshine Coast are paying through the nose so their kid can be fast tracked in some "Academy of Excellence." at a private school...
Most likely this ends with the kid having the spine of an 80-year-old, and the enthusiasm of a man doing his tax return.

Meanwhile, in Norway — a country with 5.5 million people and a climate that could freeze the ambition out of anyone — they have a rule: no scores, no rankings, no trophies until you're 13. The kids just... play. Multiple sports. For fun. Like some kind of Viking commune of the unhinged.

And what do the Norwegians get for their trouble? A record 18 golds at the Winter Olympics. A football team that just knocked Brazil out of the World Cup. And a tennis prodigy, Nicolai Budkov Kjær, who became world No. 1 junior — developed in Norway, by Norwegian coaches, without being shipped off to a "performance centre" at age eight like a racehorse with a mortgage.

Here's the thing the "School of Excellence" brochure won't tell you: early specialization is the single most reliable way to produce a burned-out 15-year-old. The research is boringly consistent. The kids who get picked at nine are usually just the ones who hit puberty first. The ones who get left behind are often the ones who'd have been better at 18. And the ones who train 20 hours a week in one sport before their growth plates have closed? They're the ones in the physio's office at 14, wondering why their back hurts and why they don't like tennis anymore.

But the academy doesn't care. The academy needs results. Results need wins. Wins need early training. Early training harms kids. The academy cannot see this, because seeing it would mean admitting its entire business model is a machine for converting parental hope into knee injuries.

The Norwegians looked at all this and said: "Nei."

They ripped apart the model... built better people and won a truck load of medals anyway.

Become informed... it's your way forward in almost everything

27/09/2026

What a moment for Kim! 🏆🇦🇺

After trailing 0-2 in the first set, 28-year-old Birrell played some of her best tennis in the first all-Aussie WTA final since May 2017 👏

👉 Rises to a career-high No.41 in the live rankings
👉 First WTA Tour-level title