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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-02-20 Daily Xml
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Nannapaneni, Ms L.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart—Minister for Local Government, Minister for Regional Roads, Minister for Veterans Affairs) (15:18): Today I would like to talk about a young person from Port Pirie who, despite her young years, has achieved some remarkable success in the world of tennis and other sports. Her name is Leana Nannapaneni.

I was delighted to hear recently that Leana, aged 14, has earned a six-month scholarship to train and study at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Majorca in Spain. This follow's Leana's success at the Rafa Nadal invitational masters tournament in Melbourne last year and subsequent visit to the Spanish academy. The second trip to the academy is extremely exciting for the community of Port Pirie and the Tea Tree Gully Tennis Club, who have been very proud to be part of Leana's tennis journey.

The Rafa Nadal Academy runs an annual and semester program for young players from age 12 to 18, based on Rafa's vast experience acquired through years of success on the professional tour. The academy's team of coaches is led by Toni Nadal, Rafa's uncle and coach for 27 years from 1990 until 2017 which included 16 major titles. Toni coached Rafa from the age of four and is now responsible for training young players like Leana and preparing them for the future.

Tennis coaching and academic education are accompanied by comprehensive personal development based on values such as hard work, humility, tolerance, patience, respect, integrity, discipline, organisation and commitment, in addition to physical and mental training and the importance of nutrition. Living at the academy's supervised residence, Leana will have the opportunity to maximise her potential at the high-performance centre where she will combine her tennis activities and, very importantly, her studies.

As regionally based members here will be well aware, nurturing a young sporting champion usually involves an enormous commitment of time and money. The Nannapaneni family's routine has involved weekly trips to Adelaide for Leana and her younger sister, Saesha, aged 10, for tennis coaching with Domenic Marafiote and to play junior state league and senior state league matches for the Tea Tree Gully Tennis Club. This travel regularly amounts to over 1,000 kilometres per week.

Saesha reckons she is going to be even better than her sister Leana. So who knows? These two remarkable young players could turn out to be Port Pirie's answer to the Williams sisters. I know that Leana receives lots of happiness knowing that more kids are playing tennis because of her and her sister. This is a quote from Leana:

I don't see tennis just as a sport, but I see it as my lifeline which has taught me how to handle pressure, wins, losses, respect, resilience, humbleness to name a few. It has taught me to be extremely disciplined in education and to focus on the process, NOT THE RESULTS.

When Leana plays tennis, she carries the aspirations of many of the regional and remote youth of Australia to be successful at the state, national and international level. At times this is tough for her and her sister, but she is very proud and optimistic about her capabilities to perform to the highest standards if given the chance.

Leana is very grateful to her parents, Dr Neni and Dr Tan. I have a great association with this family. They are very dedicated to their Indian culture, very passionate about their family and also their family back in India. But certainly, I know her dad used to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, go to the tennis courts in Port Pirie with the lights and then he would practise, practise, practise, and then Leana would go to school and he would go to his dental practice. Afterwards, when it was daylight saving, he would go back there at night-time and play again.

Leana is a credit to her family, the Port Pirie community and the local tennis community, including the Port Pirie sporting association and her school, St Mark's College. Leana won the Sportsperson of the Year Award at the association's presentations last year. I know the people of Port Pirie are looking forward to watching Leana's career, which with a bit of luck will include a United States college tennis scholarship and a successful career as a professional tennis player.

I conclude by saying how extremely proud I am and our community is of Leana and her wonderful family. I wish them well for the future.

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