Kieran Halliday had never won a singles tennis match in Juneau.

Until last weekend.

The 14-year-old went undefeated, winning four matches during an exhibition series at the indoor racquet facility in the Alaskan capital.

Halliday got his first win off Jim Bowman, who had been beating Halliday since 2008, and had become something of a rival.

"He's really good. He's really consistent, all around really good, and he was one of the better players I've played against,” Halliday said.

"My consistency levels are better than they used to be, so I stayed in the points better.”

Halliday was one of eight Yukoners to play singles and doubles matches in Alaska over the weekend.

Alex Roberts, Lara Sluga and Trygg Jensen each won three singles matches.

Khang Pham and Roan Evans-Ehricht each won one singles match.

Tennis Yukon coach Jan Polivka also won both of his singles matches against some of Juneau's top players.

The Yukon contingent last competed in Juneau in September, during the Back to School doubles tournament.

"This was our best weekend ever in Juneau, we had the most success we ever had there,” Tennis Yukon president Stacy Lewis said.

"We're at the point now where our older junior players have now been playing two years, three years…they have a couple years under their belt, they've learned the game and now can really build their game, and that was a big difference. I think we've hit a real new stage in the development of our players, and it's really exciting.”

Part of that development is due to fall training: two on-court sessions, one fitness session and inter-club matches each week.

Halliday said he's noticed improvements in his game as a result.

"It would be all about consistency, footwork and technique, really the basics,” he said.

"It's just more focused training. All fall long, I was just focusing on my consistency, and it all paid off I guess.”

Polivka agreed.

"What we were working on all fall paid off,” he said.

Readjusting to Juneau's actual tennis courts is a challenge after practicing for a few months on the Yukon College's gym floor, Halliday added.

"The bounce of the ball is really different; it's like a rubbery gym floor, and then on the real surfaces, they bounce more,” he said.

"In the warm-up we had to really adjust quickly.”

With the 2011 Western Canada Summer Games coming up, Lewis said players are keen to focus in training.

"And that's really brought everybody's attention into focus; everyone's quite keen to go to that,” Lewis said.

"We've just been able to focus our practices a lot more specifically this fall. And the players have committed at a new level, so the effort is coming in terms of the coaching and the planning but it's also coming from the players as well.”

The program will also ramp up over the winter in the lead up to another sojourn to Juneau and one to Fairbanks to get in some much needed game experience.

The higher intensity will shift the focus to fitness, Lewis said.

In 2009, Halliday and Ryan Lane, who is now a senior, competed in the Canada Summer Games.

It's a different story for the Western Games.

"This time we have more kids than we have spots: we have six kids and we can only take four. But that's quite a different space to be in for us as a program,” Lewis said.

Halliday added that the weekend's results in Juneau are a good boost of confidence.

"This was really a wrap up to the fall program. When we start playing tennis again, we'll have different goals…and we'll work on that until the end of winter and we'll go to Juneau again,” Halliday said.

"I can see the competition experience, because it's so hard to play the way you practice, but the more times you play the better you get at it.”