Young Miss Colita Hakena is flying off to New Zealand today, to take up her up a 1-year Oceania Tennis Federation (OTF)/International Tennis Federation (ITF) scholarship at the esteemed Lavie Academy in Auckland; a first for the Oceania Region & for Papua New Guinea. Her departure from her home here in Port Moresby will be the start of Colita’s participation in the OTF/ITF Touring Team Programme 2024; an intensive training programme that aims to provide crucial financial, competitive, and educational support to propel OTF players towards success at the Junior Grand Slam Championship, secure a US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) scholarship, and proudly represent their country/region in the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup. “I am so grateful for this scholarship. Tennis is such an expensive sport so this scholarship will save money for Mum and Dad,” 13-year-old Colita said. She comes from a mixed parentage of Morobe and Buka and started out her Tennis journey, aged 8, at the Port Moresby Racquets Club (POMRC) in Boroko. When asked if she is looking forward to going to New Zealand, the young Tennis star said she knows it is going to be cold and be a tough year, but she was looking forward to it all. “I have put a lot of hard work into winning this scholarship… it means a lot to me and I know, to keep this scholarship, I am going to have to keep on working hard at it.” “I don’t just want to be number 1 in the region… I want to be number 1 in the world!” Calita declared. She said she dreams of playing the Wimbledon, one the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world and winning the grand slam one day. “I am so thankful to Mum and Dad, for all their hard work and for always waking me up early and driving me to the courts for training”. Calita explained that sometimes, their training days start as early as 6am and would run all throughout the week. “I just want to say thank you to Mum and Dad for giving me the opportunity to go to Australia and study and play tennis. Without them, I would not have been able to achieve this scholarship.” She was also thankful to her coach, Kwalum Apisah, whom she credited for instilling in her, a passion for Tennis. Speaking alongside Colita, a day before her departure to New Zealand, was Colita’s mother, Ms. Dianne Hasavi, who remarked that parents need to be super committed to their children, if they want to see them succeed, not just in the space of sports, but with anything else in life. “It has not been an easy journey. As you know, Tennis is very expensive, not just for the coaching and fitness training, but even with the equipment as well as.” “But we were able to do it because we started out with a goal in mind and with a lot of forward planning and saving, we were able to get Colita to where she is now.” Colita is the current title holder in Sydney Championships U12, Wollongong Winter U12, Victoria Grass Championships U14 and she is set to take part in the Australian Opens, U14 division; another first for the Oceania Region and PNG.