Her father had introduced her to the sport at a very young age and in next to no time, she had gained maximum interest in it.
Shika recalls her time as a young girl watching stars in the Ghanaian version of the Davis Cup like Henry Adjei Darko and Gunther Darkey.
She started playing tennis at age 10 and the interest has never left.
These days, her interests have narrowed and taken a different path.
Now she’s mainly into the arts and coaching children on how to play tennis.
‘One way of introducing kids to Tennis is we try and use fun activities and fun games so the first three sessions they have we limit the actual play and focus on a lot of fun activities then they start getting the interest. Now once they have the interest then we start introducing the hardcore Tennis to them. So far I have kids who come in; initially they did not want to play Tennis but because they saw their friends playing around, running around and with cones and all they got interested.’
Shika has had a fine trajectory in her line of duty.
She’s so young in the coaching game but has already met superstars like Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev who is currently ranked 8th in world tennis.
Developing tennis talents in this country is a hard venture.
Shika agrees but says with support she has had some cushion.
‘A lot people cannot afford the actual prize that we are supposed to put out so usually we lower the cost a bit and adjust it to where we are. In terms whichever location we have shoes that the kids have to wear. Fortunately for me, I was able to get friends who are coaches in the US to send down lots of rackets and balls.’
Shika is on her way to the top of coaching in world tennis. Don’t be surprised to see her by cheering her player on at a grand slam in years to come. She’s smashing her way through life with a racket in her hand.
By Nana Kweku Anderson|3news.com|Ghana