Author: akeslo

August 20, 2019

August 20, 2019 “I definitely feel some true pressure. It’s mixed, mostly from myself, but also triggered a little bit by maybe some fans in Japan. I think I receive extra financial help or sponsors than most people around my ranking or even higher have. Sometimes I feel almost guilty for having them. You’d have players around my ranking struggling financially sometimes. I feel the pressure to keep on improving my ranking in order to maintain the status I have gained in Japan. Last year was basically the first year I made a satisfying amount of money. When I was younger I would think, ‘Hey, if I can make this much out of tennis a year, then I would be happy or satisfied and wouldn’t have to worry about money anymore. Then I can concentrate more on the process or improving’. When money or sponsors come into your life they bring new problems. There are unexpected problems that you’ve never dealt with, that I’ve had to deal with this year, that I’ve struggled with a bit more than anticipated. Last year was the first time I had ever gotten into some big TV shows in Japan and made a name (more…)

August 18, 2019

August 18, 2019 “The story of my attack is unfortunately not great, but how I came back is what I want people to know. It was obviously not something I expected to deal with and made me feel empty inside for a while. The attacker took my love, tennis, away from me. I didn’t want to just come back, I wanted to come back and play at the highest level. It was like a challenge for me. Mentally, it helped having resounding support from everyone in my life and others I didn’t know. I had lots of messages and emails, I had fellow tennis players, even tournaments, who filmed videos wishing me a good recovery, which helped me get through everything. It was heart warming to see all the faces smiling as I made my way back to my first tournament. Some players didn’t know how to act towards me at first, but there was a feeling of comfort to see all of them again. I truly missed the competition of being on the court. As a tennis player you have to deal with many tough aspects such as being on the road for long periods, the ups and downs (more…)

August 15, 2019

August 15, 2019 “It’s obvious Hungary is not a tennis nation but I was lucky in two ways. My dad could actually coach me, so that didn’t cost the family anything. Also my sister, helped me through it all since she has been the tennis path before. My parents didn’t even want me to play tennis, they started me as a swimmer. I knew as a swimmer I would receive the right support from my country. I then started tennis when I was like nine or ten years old. In the beginning I just did it for fun and then my mom started traveling with me to some local tournaments. Out of nowhere I started winning, and she told my dad, ‘This girl really has talent, but just has no clue how to play’. I combined that with speed and fighting spirit on court and it led to success. My dad finally took me to a tournament and I begged him to start working with me when I was ten. My dad is still one of the best coaches in Hungary so it was a big deal for me. It’s not easy without the help of a federation and without (more…)

August 12, 2019

August 12, 2019 “I cannot imagine my life without tennis. It has been so engrained in me, with practice basically every day, I am sure life would be boring without it. My dad started it all. He used to watch tennis all the time, so I guess he wanted me to love the sport as much as he did. For me now, it is extremely fun. All I want to do is to become the best player I can possibly be. My dreams are to first go to an incredible college which will hopefully lead to me becoming a professional tennis player at some point. At the moment I practice with the team at the University of Minnesota, which is one of my top dream schools, so I can stay in state. If not, I am all for going to a school down south to get away from these winters. I am trying to juggle my other passions, like acting and modeling, with tennis. I understand that in the future it will be difficult to manage but my goal is to try to find a way to intertwine them and make it all work. For now as I grow as (more…)

August 8, 2019

August 8, 2019 #MyBTR– “For somebody soft-spoken like myself, stringing is the perfect craft to become adept at in the tennis world. It’s all behind the scenes, and I’m mostly content operating in anonymity. No glamour, nor big salaries involved, and there are a very select few who would be crazy enough to actively pursue this line of work. I’ve been extremely lucky thus far, being granted opportunities to grow and remain involved with high-caliber programs. I worked my way from a student manager earning $8/hour, 7 years ago, to getting a business license and freelancing exclusively as a racquet tech for 2 years after graduation. I was then rehired this past fall as a part-time Operations Coordinator, for a coaching staff who created an administrative position that previously didn’t exist, to go along with my stringing duties. Here, I’m surrounded by an incredible group of people who look out and care for each other, and I’m grateful to be part of the team atmosphere despite not having any on-court accolades. I pride myself in being a problem-solver at work and for others, to a fault, where I spend more time addressing them than at home with family. Working with (more…)

August 5, 2019

August 5, 2019 ”I grew up with this idea that winning was prioritized over everything else. That somehow if I came away with a first place trophy, that the people around me would love me more. I soon realized that these moments were fleeting. That the minor satisfaction the people around me felt would only last so long. That I wouldn’t receive the same feeling as if I played for only myself. To break this habit took ongoing, conscious effort. Tennis puts this stigma on losing to the point that only the winners receive the platform to speak. It’s truly sad that losers are barely acknowledged in a sport where defeat is an every week occurrence. We need to change the idea that losing equals failure, rather than something that takes place every week. I got to a point where I figured out that the match was the bonus. I was able to play the way that I wanted to, the style I wanted to. Once I understood these key factors I began to play more freely than ever. I found a love for playing how I wanted to without worrying about what other people wanted for me. The hardest (more…)

July 25, 2019

July 25, 2019 “It was last year when I sadly had a stress fracture in my lower back. It kept me out of competition for three months. It was an incredibly tough time for me which led to some depression. Since the injury was in my back I wasn’t allowed to do anything for the first two months. I had more free time than I ever had and I didn’t know what to do with it all. I missed the sport so much and all I wanted to do was compete. I clearly remember nothing else at the time was making me happy. It truly was one of the toughest moments of my career. I was born to compete and now I couldn’t and that’s where moments of depression came from. I would try to not keep up with any results from tournaments. Any time I did, by accident, it would make me really upset to see other players doing something I couldn’t at the time. I am here at home doing nothing while they are doing their best and improving. I had to continue to wait for the bone to heal to do even a little rehab. I just (more…)

July 14, 2019

July 14, 2019 “Growing up on a farm in rural New Zealand my tennis childhood was a little atypical. Through my early teens I was more interested in surfing and snowboarding than grand slams. I played soccer, nationally, alongside tennis until I was 15. When the NZ soccer federation told me I had to train year-round with them it forced me to choose between tennis or soccer. Tennis won out. I was drawn to its gladiatorial aspect and self-sufficiency. I missed soccer and its team aspect like crazy for years afterwards, and actually had to stop following the premier league because it was making me too sad. I moved away from my country home to a boarding school 8 hours drive away in Auckland City so I could do what I then considered proper tennis training, which in hindsight was very minimal. When I finished school I was consistently one of the top 2 juniors in NZ, had an ATP ranking, and had offers from quite a few universities in USA. Instead of college, I ended up moving to Slovakia to pursue a professional career, aged 17, alone, following a Slovak coach who told me it would be my best (more…)