Veteran regains taste for victory

STEPHEN Dance’s past month has served as a winner for the senior tennis star, after helping Australia to gold in the ITF seniors world team championships held in Miami.

The former junior ace had almost given up on his competitive tennis career, before he revived his thirst for the contest when invited to compete in the same event last year.

The 62-year-old is enjoying a new-found love for the sport, and it’s not been without success.

Dance has now won back-toback gold medals for Australia in the world team championships for the over-60s category, with the veteran regarding this year’s win as particularly special.

“The great thing about this year was the fact that we were able to get the win for (teammate) Glen Busby who lost his father in the lead-up to the tournament,” Dance said.

Following his run of success in Miami last month, Dance flew to Mexico to represent Australia in a grade A ITF tournament and won gold in the individual championships. It rocketed the Tasmanian from 15th to sixth overall in the men’s over-60 world rankings.

“When you get back into it seriously you have different goals,” Dance said. “My first goal was to get inside the top 50. Then I began to eye off the top 20 and my longer-term goal was to get in the top 10.

“It’s the first time I’ve been inside the top 10 world rankings and I’m pretty happy about it.”