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Local tennis phenom Kyra Foster thriving with major opportunity | Canterbury’s Foster repeats as Tennis Player of the Year
Kyra Foster
Fort Wayne, Indiana
IMG Academy
Junior, Class of 2019
Local tennis phenom Kyra Foster thriving with major opportunity
Canterbury tennis star Kyra Foster is spending the year studying and training in Florida.
Canterbury’s Foster repeats as Tennis Player of the Year
After reaching the state semifinals last year, finishing with a 27-2 record and earning her first News-Sentinel Tennis Player of the Year award, Canterbury’s Kyra Foster had a completely different mindset coming into this season.
For one thing, she was no longer a freshman.
“This year I feel like I just wanted to focus on having fun and enjoying myself,” Foster said. “I feel like last year even though I tried not to, and it really wasn’t a situation where since I was a freshman I didn’t have to put as much pressure on myself, but I kind of did that subconsciously. This year I focused on enjoying my time and having fun playing tennis.”
In other words, concentrate on trying to win rather than trying not to lose, have fun with her teammates and enjoy the moments.
This year Foster finished 28-2, and again reached the state semifinals before giving eventual state champion Lauren Lemonds of Carmel her toughest match, falling in three sets. Again, Foster has been named The News-Sentinel’s Player of the Year for girls tennis.
Her sophomore year did present some unique challenges, as Foster lost to fellow super-sophomore Caroline Rahrig of Bishop Luers on April 27, falling 7-5 in the third set.
“Having that early on in the season definitely me hungry,” Foster said. “I felt kind of disappointed in myself. I’m not taking anything away from her because she played a great match. Just on that day she out-played me. Obviously you don’t feel good after a loss nine times out of ten, but I had to bounce back quickly because we had a match two days later.”
The match two days later was against Avon’s Teodora Simion, a player Foster would meet again in the state quarterfinals. Foster bounced back from her loss with a tough two-set win.
