Christine Richiez
Sport: Tennis
School: Park Ridge
Class: Senior. Age: 17
Accomplishment: Richiez posted a 7-0 record without dropping a set and captured the Bergen County small-schools championship at first singles. She also won two matches in the NJSIAA singles tournament.
Christine Richiez tries to pattern her tennis game after that of Rafael Nadal.
Out of the “Big Three” 20-time men’s Grand Slam champions – Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – “I liked Nadal the most, because of his composure on the court,” Richiez said.
The Park Ridge senior had to dig deep to emulate Rafa in the Sept. 26 first-singles final of the Bergen County small-schools tournament. She held off league rival Chloe Wu of Saddle River Day, 6-2, 7-5, to claim her first title in the event.
“I was so anxious that entire [second] set, because she was definitely playing better in the second set than she was in the first,” Richiez recalled. “That final game was 40-love, and then it ended up being 40-30, and I was like, ‘Oh no, don’t miss this last point.’ And it was such a relief when I finally did it.”
On the winning point, she hit a volley to her opponent’s backhand side, and the return shot caught the net. That made Richiez the first Park Ridge tennis player (girl or boy) to capture a county championship at first singles. She is now a two-time North Jersey Athlete of the Week as well.
According to The Record archives, the only other girl to earn a Bergen tournament trophy for the Owls was Danielle LaRubbio, who did so at third singles in 1988.
The county crown carried extra meaning for Richiez since she lost in the small-school final at first singles in both her freshman and sophomore seasons (the 2020 event was canceled due to COVID).
“It felt good after the three years that I was in the final to finally do it,” Richiez said.
“My father gave both of us the decision, ‘If you want to keep playing [junior events], it’s up to you. If you don’t want to, that’s totally fine’,” Christine said. “For me, I want to keep playing, and he’s been 100 percent behind me at all my tournaments, all of my practices, always right there next to me.”
Arturo also has helped his older daughter incorporate some elements from her favorite player’s repertoire.
“There’s some ground strokes where my dad will actually call out, ‘Do the Nadal,’ and I’ll know exactly what he’s talking about,” Richiez said. “Most of my game is actually modeled after [Nadal, a lefty], even though I am a right-handed player.”
