Category: Story

April 2, 2025

“I’ve definitely struggled at times with my identity. I was born in New York, but I never really lived there. I spent my life in Japan until I was 13, then we all moved to Spain. I’ll always have that ‘Daniel’ on my last name, which if I’m in Japan, people are like, “Oh, where’s that from?” And when I lived in Spain, I did struggle quite a bit in the first few years with micro-racism. I ended up being very fond of Spain, but it was tough the first couple of years. My dad really wanted to move because he was in a very typical Japanese corporate life, and it was killing him. He was the one really passionate about tennis, so we followed his idea. It was a busy childhood. I’d play tennis all day and then study the rest of the time. I barely had days off and didn’t really get to play much with my friends. It’s crazy when I think about it now and those are things that I do regret a bit, but they weren’t really in my control. My sister was the talented one in the beginning. I was good enough to tag (more…)

March 20, 2025

“I wrote a note to my parents when I was seven years old trying to negotiate that I didn’t need to go to school. I just needed to go on a tennis court, because I wanted to become a tennis professional. For whatever reason, my dad threw me into judo at a young age, but I never really liked it. My dad was a tennis coach, but didn’t actually really like tennis growing up himself. He somehow just got thrown out there and tried to make a living. Every time I went to the tennis club, though, my parents had to fight to get me off the court. I always knew what I wanted to become. There was never a question of going to college if I didn’t perform well in the juniors. College didn’t really exist in my mind. I knew as soon as I finished high school, I was going to go play on the tour and go after my dreams. Top 10 was always a big dream. Of course, winning a Grand Slam would have been the ultimate dream – that’s what you play for. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Struggles are inherently a part of the sport. (more…)

January 8, 2025

“Tennis was big in my family. My mother’s family were all real tennis fanatics. It was inevitable that when I was old enough to hold a racquet, I would take tennis lessons. But when I got sent to tennis day camp, I wasn’t very good at all. By the time I was a preteen, I could see that there was a ceiling as to how good I could be and decided it wasn’t going to be a part of my life anymore. I really didn’t think about or follow tennis much until sometime in 2018 when I happened to turn on the US Open, and I watched the final between Osaka and Serena. As you know, it was a controversial match because the umpire accused Serena of receiving coaching from the sidelines. Because I hadn’t followed the sport in so long, I didn’t know about this rule. Immediately, it struck me as a very cinematic situation. For whatever reason, it started to percolate in my mind, like, “What if you really needed to speak to that person and what if it was something beyond tennis? Maybe even between the two of you? Or with the person on the other side (more…)

December 30, 2024

“My mom, she’s a former number one, multiple-time Grand slam champion, but I never really felt pressure from her at all. You’d see other parents growing up, and they’d be like, “Oh, you’re going to be a professional tennis player.” But my family wasn’t like that, it was more about playing and having fun.  I realized tennis could be a pathway for me probably a lot later than most people. I played Little League Baseball until I was probably 11 or 12. Basically every sport at some point, but I had to decide eventually which one I liked the most. It wasn’t until basically high school where I really started doing the full gym, full practices multiple times a day and started working extremely hard at becoming a pro player.  With my mom, I think the pressure was low because she realized how hard it is to be at the top of any sport. There are also so many things that can go wrong. Both my parents, but especially my mom, were very adamant that we take education seriously, play a variety of sports and, basically, have fun.  There was never any discouragement to not take tennis seriously, though, either. (more…)

December 22, 2024

“I think the first time I was labeled as one of the next American young players was when I was 15. I never felt a ton of pressure from it, to be honest, because I never really had true belief in myself at that age.  Juniors is all fun and games. You get to travel, play in the slams…everything is just easy in a way. Then you play college, which is another step. Then you start playing on the tour, and that’s a whole different story. There’s just no easy days, no easy matches — everything has to be earned. Once you get that slap in the face, you start to figure out that you’re really going to have to endure and suffer a lot of obstacles.  I’ve struggled a lot with injuries, and playing pro is already tough when you’re healthy. When you’re not healthy, you just don’t have a chance. It’s stressful to be injured, because your tennis career isn’t forever. If you’re lucky you get 12, 15 years max, but 10 is probably more realistic.  There have been moments where I’ve questioned what I’m doing, but I was quick to put an end to that in my mind. (more…)

December 15, 2024

“My sister was a tennis player as well. I would always go from school to her practices to be a ball kid. I just spent a lot of time there. Then, during the weekends, I would go with my dad to the club. I’d always want to play eight points, doubles, anything.. In order to play, he’d always make me do a basket of serves before and after the activity. When I was 12 years old, I moved to the US after I finished school. As soon as I moved, I saw it as less of a hobby and more of a job. I was competing week in, week out. As soon as I started to get deeper into that competition, it built up little by little until I started playing some bigger junior events. Since I was so young when I moved, I don’t think I realized the level of change – how much I would miss my family, my friends, everything. At that moment, I was just pursuing my dream and trying to have a chance of being a professional tennis player. Growing up, I watched tennis when my country had the best Colombian cycle. I would wake (more…)

December 8, 2024

“I think the hardest part about actually playing pro tennis is realizing that, as a career, it doesn’t change much. As a kid, you dream about this career and you see the stars. Then, after actually having a little bit of experience traveling with pro players or playing at the top level. It’s the same stuff. Obviously, the money changes, but it’s the same waiting around, the same pressures..  I grew up in the golden era of tennis, watching Roger, Rafa and Novak. Coming up, I wanted to be like them. And I realized as a young kid that I had the talent, but when you hit your mid-teens, it’s hard to figure out everything else that it actually takes to make it there.  Tennis is very hooking in a way where you always think you’re going to figure it out. You’re always waiting for that day, and it never comes. But that’s what keeps you going. It was my dream to play professional tennis, and my parents were very supportive of that. But around mid-2019, I sort of called it. At that point it was very difficult financially for me to stay on tour. I would play for a (more…)

December 1, 2024

“Recently, things have been tough with my dad. I found out in July after Wimbledon that he has stage 4 cancer. When I found out about my dad’s diagnosis, I didn’t really know what to do. I questioned taking off the rest of the year just to be with him, but I know he wants me to play. I knew something was up for, honestly, the whole month or two in Europe while I was away during the clay court swing and leading into grass. He wasn’t feeling well and I could tell he was down. I would ask him, “What’s wrong?” He didn’t want to tell me because I was away. He wanted to wait until I came back home from the Europe swing, so that’s when I found out. I went home, and it was definitely really tough. When I came home, I saw him and didn’t even really recognize him. He lost a lot of weight. I was going to play Newport in a few weeks — that’s the first tournament leading up to the US Open swing — and at the time I was just like, “I don’t want to do this. I just want to be with (more…)

November 24, 2024

“My earliest memory of playing tennis is at the after school tennis club in the first year of primary school. It was just something I wanted to do, nobody was really forcing me. Kept me busy after school. A coach ended up asking me to go to the local club, try it out a little bit more, and then from there I was doing one or two sessions a week at night. Over the years, I just started to play more and more. When I was in Year 10 at school is when I realized it could be an actual pathway. It was also at a time where I wanted to have a bit more of a social life with my friends, and I was playing a bit less tennis. But funny enough, I was doing better in tournaments. From that moment when I was 14 or 15, I told my coach, “I believe I can do this and I want to do this. Let’s go for it.” Francis and his story was a big inspiration; it gave me a lot of belief, the fact that he made it from the situation he was in. It gave me belief that (more…)

September 12, 2024

“I was in constant pain for two and a half, three years. I was so desperate for any other alternative that could have been rewarding, that it was almost a relief to be given the option of retiring and going to school. I think the interesting thing a lot of people say is, “Wow, it must’ve been challenging.” I think the answer to that question is, “Yes and no.” It was not challenging in the sense that I’ve always felt that I’d never had a choice, right? It wasn’t like I had to stop my career because of lack of skill or desire. It was just that I couldn’t physically do it. What really struck me was when I went to college originally and I had to ask for help. I was used to always being very good. When I had to ask for help, it was a weird feeling. That was, I think, the most challenging part of the transition, but I never really felt that it was sad in the sense that I didn’t have a choice. Life doesn’t always work out the way you want it to, and you have to adapt. One thing I try to (more…)