Month: September 2023

September 28, 2023

“I started playing tennis when I was around four or five years old. It started just for fun, kind of just a lesson a week. At seven, I started playing tournaments and by the time I was 10 or 11, I started wanting to play professionally. I remember when I was around 12 or 13, at school they asked us to put down our goals and I actually put that I wanted to win the junior US Open. Obviously, I didn’t know anything at the time, I was just like that would be really cool. And then I ended up doing it. During the tournament, I think I knew I was capable of it, and I obviously had a lot of people telling me I could, but I tried to not think too much about winning it all. It was extra special to me, though, because it was the last junior tournament of my career. The entire time, I was thinking more about that little 7 year old girl who had just started playing tennis seriously. I really connected with my childhood self at that time, and I think that’s what kept me motivated and gave me a good mentality. (more…)

September 9, 2023

“Tennis changed my life pretty quickly. I signed big contracts and left for the federation to train when I was very young. Back then, I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders, and many people were expecting me to be in the top 100 before I turned 18. Everyone told me that I would be successful. I was riddled by the fear of letting the people that believed in me down. What I think differentiates me from other tennis players is my path. I was pretty good when I was young, and then I had a really bad knee injury when I was 15. It was undoubtedly the most painful experience of my career. I injured it during a tournament; it was like the sky fell on my head. After it happened, I went through depression for almost a year because I couldn’t play, and I didn’t know what other things I could do besides tennis. It took me a while to accept my injury. What was also painful to see was that a lot of people that believed in me in the past let me down while I was injured, because they stopped thinking that I could make (more…)