Month: May 2025

May 29, 2025

“My first memory of playing tennis was actually the first shot I ever hit. I remember what came before that and what came after that. My parents were playing at a park, and I had brought all my sketchbooks. I got bored and asked my dad if I could borrow his racket. I hit the ball and I was addicted after that. I did lots of activities as a kid, but tennis always dominated. There are so many different aspects to why I loved it. You have to be fit, physically and mentally. You’re also able to be creative on the court. There’s just so many sides to the game, and I was obsessed with that. You’re never done learning. In my consciousness, I think there was a moment when I was 16 when I realized I could play tennis professionally. But if you ask people in my life that have known me since I was five or six, they say I knew when I was 10, because I told them my goals and my goals were very tennis oriented. I think it’s earlier than I remember, but by 16 I knew I wanted to be a pro player. Moving (more…)

May 22, 2025

“I moved to the US when I was around 13, 14 years old. Honestly, I was just excited to leave home and pursue the opportunity to play tennis. I played a lot in Europe, but had never been to the States, so I was like, ‘You know what? This is perfect.” Looking back, the only thing I obviously regret is leaving behind friends. I lost a lot of those connections over time, and making new friends as you get older is tough. But I moved to Florida with my aunt, who’s a psychologist, and it helped me get through the tough moments that came with such a big move. Some of the best advice she gave me was, “You know you’re here for a reason. Keep working, and something will happen.” There’s lots of hard times in tennis, especially when you’re not doing well. If you’re not good, the industry will just move onto the next one. There’s no care at all in the world for you. During my pro career, I’ve been lucky enough to move up quickly, but the transition from being a junior was hard. Adjusting to the level that these guys play at was difficult. Everyone (more…)

May 16, 2025

“Tennis didn’t run in my family. No sport really did – my parents are both electrical engineers. It was a bit…out of coincidence. There was a push into both academics and sports from my family, but there was a strong push from my dad on sport. Initially, there was actually a lot of resistance from my end in terms of going fully into tennis. Once I finished high school, I went overseas and the emotions of my journey really hit me. I was 17 when I moved. Having it be my first time without my friends, my family…I struggled. During that time, I was enrolled in the University of Sydney, but deferred for two years.Before I went to Spain, though, my eventual college coach approached me and wanted me to come to Illinois. That’s when I started leaning towards the US college path. In the back of my mind, I still wanted to make it pro. Some people around me weren’t sure about the idea of college, but I was pretty committed to it. I came up with this formula in my head on the likelihood of making it pro after going to college, and wanted to prove it right (more…)

May 8, 2025

“My brother and I would play with balloons, setting up the couch as a net, and just smack it back and forth. Then every Sunday night, my mom and I would play against my brother and dad – a little mixed doubles action. From there, I just fell in love with the game. My brother playing in college and my mom being a tennis pro, I always grew up in the tennis environment. I just had great role models to look up to, and I’m really lucky to have them. When you break the top 100 as a tennis player, I think that’s a huge goal that everyone has. When you do it, it’s this huge weight lifted off your back. When that happened for me, it was a huge milestone. From there, I was into so many more WTA main draws and had more opportunities. I think comparison is the thief of joy, in tennis and in life. It’s super hard, because we’re out here, seeing the same players every week. It’s natural to compare, but I think the biggest thing is to just focus on your journey. What are your goals? What are you trying to work on (more…)