First Time on Clay Nets ‘Little Mo’ Internationals Victory for Burleson 8-Year-old

Last week, Burleson third-grader Christian Gonzalez won “Little Mo” Internationals in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. It was his first time playing on clay courts; in fact, his parents didn’t even know he would be playing on clay, but his father, Jose, said Christian was a natural. “Lisa, you can’t believe how well he was sliding on that clay. It was as though he had been playing on clay all his life.

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While he is only 8 years old, he has been playing tennis for five years, and several of the other children in the draw were familiar with the surface, being from Florida and Spain. Yet Christian lost at most a few games per match–and they were playing standard-length two-out-of-three-set matches on full-sized courts with regulation-sized yellow tennis balls.
“I liked it a lot,” Christian said a few days later during TCU’s nightly High-Performance Academy. “I got this shirt.”
He was wearing a bright yellow “Little Mo” T-shirt that everyone wanted to see, and he was hitting those same rhythmic forehands that he has been working on with several strong area coaches. This little lefthander takes lessons from TCU coach David Roditi and assistant Chris Price, who teach at the Academy along with Daniel Sanchez and Mark Tjia; Christian also takes lessons from All Saints’ pro Linton Lewis and assistant Jordan Freitas. Jose Gonzalez also coaches his son, giving Christian a Texas-sized posse.

 The TCU High-Performance Academy is among several efforts in the last couple of years to teach juniors right here in Fort Worth. “You can quote me on this,” Roditi said, as he jogged down the steps toward the purple varsity courts to get the practice started. “No one needs to go to Dallas to get high-performance training. We have it right here. Come on over.”
Indeed, Christian Gonzalez was surrounded by elite players, many of whom I know from TennisFortWorth.com’s other Junior Media Playdays (we held one during that night’s TCU training, a convenient little way for me to connect with the players in action). I caught up with Paul Bhatia and Michal Matusiak (who also has worked with All Saints’ Lewis), as well as a handful of other talented young players, including Alex and Isabella Chieffalo, and a few boys so young that they were probably “Little Mo” pals of Christian’s.
Returning once again to The Boy of the Hour, young Christian, here’s what his mother, Maria, had to say in the moments after the “Little Mo” experience, which was made possible by $500 donations from the Fort Worth Tennis Association and the Maureen Connolly Brinker Foundation, as well as a plane ticket her parents bought so her husband could join her and Christian in Florida:
“It has been an exciting whirlwind, as you can imagine! First match, he won 6-0, 6-1. Second match, he won 6-3, 6-2. Semis, he won 6-0, 6-1. Finals, 6-0, 6-1!

 “We are so thankful to Bill Clark for letting him practice at his academy, the Bill Clark Tennis Academy, in Cooper City. We reunited with his previous coach, Scott Smashey, who coached Christian at McLeland Tennis Center, who now coaches at Bill Clark’s.
“He was so excited to reunite with his friend, Slater Miller (age 8), whom he met and also competed against at “Little Mo” Nationals in Austin. They became great buddies and played doubles in Palm Beach [Gardens]. Unfortunately, they did not win, but both showed GREAT sportsmanship.
“I asked Christian what was the best part of the whole event, and he said playing on clay!! This was his first time on clay, so we were concerned it would throw his game off, but he was such a natural at it. He loves clay and prefers it over hard court. He said with a huge smile, “I can’t believe I won it!”
“He fought hard for every point and said he really wants this. He had a blast at the pizza party that was given to the players Saturday evening.”