New additions to Team Canada

BRADENTON, Fla. – As the players improve and grow, so must the teams around them.

And so, ‘Team Canada’ is growing.

Vasek Pospisil has been working on a trial basic with athletic trainer Paul Kinney, who is associated with the USTA and is from the Bradenton, Fla., area, while he has been practicing for the upcoming season at the IMG Academies.

He told Open Court it’s working out well, and he expects Kinney will be added to Team Vashy and will travel with him on Tour a certain number of weeks per year.

That’s Kinney in the photo above.

As well, Genie Bouchard auditioned several hitting partners over the last few weeks, and has settled upon Joseph Sirianni to fulfill that role during the Aussie summer circuit. He’s an Aussie; he’ll join her there.

With coach Nick Saviano only joining her for some of the bigger events, having a hitting partner becomes even more of an imperative.

It’s actually not as easy as you might think, as many good guy tennis players as there are hanging around, looking for a gig.

For one thing, they can’t hit a heavy, spinny ball (and many do); there’s no point in practicing / warming up with someone who can’t at least approximate the female opponents, who generally tend to hit a much flatter ball than the guys do.

Siriani, who will turn 39 during the Australian Open, played professionally for many years, mostly at the lower levels. He reached his career best of No. 138 quite late in his career, just five years ago, and played all the way through to the end of the 2011 season.

He got to No. 107 in doubles.

(Photo from Tennis Australia)