I was very happy to read your very nice article in the Sports section of your newspaper on the Mexican tennis player Fernanda Contreras Gomez. Fernanda won several matches in qualifying and won the right to participate in the main draw of Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Our daughter, Dominique Reynolds, was born in Harlingen and raised on South Padre Island. She grew up playing in local tournaments in Harlingen at the H-E-BTennisCenter. Nicki went to school at St. Alban’s until third grade.
We moved to Mexico City when Nicki was 9. She became Mexican national 12, 14, 16 and 18 Champion. She held an International Tennis Federation world ranking of 57 in juniors. She played in the main draw of Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the qualifying of Roland Garros. She represented Mexico in the Orange Bowl (seven years), Sugar Bowl (two years, semifinalist in singles and doubles). Nicki was the No. 1 player on the three-player team for Mexico in the World Youth Cup; she had match point on the United States (Ansley Cargill and Melissa Middleton) in 14 and under in the deciding doubles match. Nicki went on to receive a full scholarship to BrighamYoungUniversity in Provo, Utah.
Mexican tennis has long been underrated and overlooked. Mexico has two current players: Santiago Gonzalez (#20 in ITF world doubles ranking), who has been a finalist in men’s doubles at Roland Garros. He has also been a finalist in mixed doubles at the U.S. Open, Indian Wells and the French Open. He has career winnings of $2.6 million. The other female tennis player Mexico has is also a doubles specialist. Giuliana Olmos is (ranked #11 in ITF world doubles ranking). In 2021 Giuliana won the Miami Open and the Italian Open.
Our new rising star is Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez, who was a quarterfinalist in this years’ Roland Garros Juniors. All three of the these players played in this year’s Wimbledon.
Keep an eye out for Mexican Tennis players!
Miles Reynolds
South Padre Island
Columnist
criticized
In Ruben Navarrette’s recent commentary on abortion he states that “Abortion has little to do with Latinos leaving Democrats” (June 30), and that public opinion polls show that Latinos are solidly pro choice. He apparently thinks he has his finger on the pulse of Latinos and states boldly that Catholics pick and choose what doctrine to follow.
Mr. Navarrette, who lives in California, obviously does not know the Rio Grande Valley Hispanic population. It is so humiliating to read his commentaries describing our population from the comfort of his home in California: “nada que ver.”
The Latinos in the Rio GrandeValley recently elected a female Mexican American to represent them in Congress; her platform was against abortion. How can Mr. Navarrette be so out of touch with “la gente?” The answer is clear: He is part of the elite Latinos in the Democratic Party who like to cause division and spread lies.
I wish The Monitor would feature a local Hispanic who lives here and has our best interests in mind, which are God, family and community.
Ileana Vicinaiz
Palmhurst
