Category: Story

July 9, 2020

“I am adopted. When I was born, my mother was recovering from breast cancer. She wanted to adopt because she thought I could be a shining star in her life. I owe everything to her. I never wanted to meet my biological parents because I don’t think it’s necessary. My mother raised me and nothing can change that. I am one of the first high level players from North Brazil. I come from a humble family, not poor but not rich. I grew up with my mother, brother and three sisters. I never met my father, my parents are separated and we have no contact with him. Growing up, I played tennis and football. At age 14, I left home to train at an academy, that was three and half hour flight from my hometown, in the south of Brazil. I lived there for five years while tennis transitioned from my hobby to a professional routine. Nobody in my city believed I could reach the top but my older brother was very supportive of my career. He would drive me 10 hours to play junior events. In 2015, I had match point in the final round of qualifying for a (more…)

July 2, 2020

“Both my parents were involved in sports. My mom was a sportscaster on national television and my dad played in the NBA. They have been together since age 16. I never felt pressure from my parents that I had to be an athlete. From a young age, I had freedom to do what I wanted. I tried ballet. I tried ice-skating. Then I tried tennis. Since then, I have been with my racquet all the time. Players often have a love-hate relationship with tennis. I had a lot of tough moments but I can’t imagine myself not being on the court practicing and playing matches. There is no pressure like there is in tennis. People often ask about my transition from juniors to the professional circuit. Honestly, I never understood what they wanted me to say because when I started playing in the professional circuit, I won two $15,000 events and played in the final of a $25,000 event. I won my first WTA title in Moscow in 2018. I had a quick rise to the top but then life hit me. It was not all going to be that easy, not everything would be rainbows and flowers. There had (more…)

June 25, 2020

“I finished 2018 ranked in the Top 10. The beginning of 2019 was very tough because everyone had high expectations. Meanwhile, I had split from my coach and most of my team. I did not have a practice partner so I could not prepare well for matches. I was alone, traveling to tournaments with only my brother. I was very lost. I wanted to take a break. But I had to play mandatory tournaments because of my ranking. If I chose not to play these events, I had to pay huge fines. So I continued playing but was breaking down. Tennis is one of the most difficult sports because you’re alone. Our season is longer than most other sports and we are not financially secure. If you’re not playing tournaments, you don’t earn money. If you do not play well at the main events, you have to earn money somewhere else so you play even more tournaments. At some point, you break down. Most of the professional players reach a point where they cannot do it anymore. I wondered if I wanted to quit. But then I thought, ‘If I want to quit now, what am I going to do?’ (more…)

June 18, 2020

“I struggle with being shy. I have always been introverted. As a junior player, I let my racquet do the talking. I didn’t talk to many people because I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. I am most comfortable speaking when I’m confident expressing what I feel. Between interviews and the college recruiting process, I started to speak up. I recently made big decisions for my future. I decided to go to college then I decided to turn professional. These choices were very tough moments for me. There were a lot of people voicing their opinions and I wanted to keep an open mind. In the end, I made choices that were best for my future. I am grateful for the support I received during this time.For me, college was the first step before turning professional. I had to decide which school and how long I would stay there. College helped my game as it allowed me to mature physically and mentally and prepare for life on tour. It was a hard decision to leave the University of Virginia. I built many strong relationships in college, and it was difficult leaving my teammates and coaches after only one semester. (more…)

June 11, 2020

“When I was 13 years old, my dad was my full-time coach and my mom was my full-time mom. There was no income and sometimes we lived out of our car. My dad showed me a bag of money and was like, ‘This is all we have.” Then he told me, ‘You better start winning because we need money.” That was a lot of pressure to put on a young child. I originally wanted to be a pediatrician. But when I first picked up a racquet, I looked like I had been playing for years so I felt that God had given me this gift to play tennis. I started at 10 and turned professional at 14. My dad took me out of school and was my coach until I was 18. During this time, I played tennis because I had no choice. I had to win because if I didn’t, my dad would get abusive and I was afraid of what would happen. Fear was the driving emotion. I’m grateful that I had my mom who was my pillar of support. I also had my brother who was my practice partner and later became my coach in 2000 and (more…)

June 4, 2020

“Early 2015 was a pretty dark time for me. I had decided to quit professional tennis, get out of that bubble and enter the real world. With that lifestyle change came more time to live, reflect and consume everything outside of the professional tennis world. Around that time, there were a few high profile race-based killings in the United States. The murder that received the most publicity at the time was Trayvon Martin. There were a lot of others that didn’t grab mainstream media’s attention but these stories kept repeating themselves with no real change. As these murders kept occurring, and I was no longer solely consumed with that fuzzy yellow ball, I came to the realization that any one of those killings could have been me. I could have been that kid walking back from 7/11 wearing a hoodie and getting Skittles or more recently, I could have been Ahmaud Arbery going for a run in a white neighborhood before getting shot. Those realizations took me to a dark place. I was 22 and I was starting to think about what I was leaving behind in the world if my life ended unexpectedly. I thought I wanted a kid, (more…)

May 19, 2020

May 19, 2020 “Compared to the other players, my journey has been gradual. I was always moving one step at a time, trying not to lose the momentum of improving my game. I played the $10,000 events, then the 25,000 events, and then slowly started getting into Grand Slams. Then I was playing on the biggest stages and trying to break into the Top 10 but I put too much pressure on myself. No matter what you are ranked, you always want more. When I was number 30 in the world, I thought, ‘If I am in the Top 10 I will be happy,’ but when I found myself in the Top 10, I was crying after losing matches. It never ends and it’s never enough. I learned to enjoy every match, even the toughest battles. I have been a Top 10 player for over three years now. It is important to maintain a consistent frame of mind and I have brought this to my game as well. When I was transitioning from juniors to the professional circuit, there was a lot of doubt. People expect you to improve more quickly and you compare yourself to other players who are (more…)

May 17, 2020

May 17, 2020 “I think that there’s probably one thing I would change about my time on tour- my mentality. When you’re on tour, you have invincibility, to some degree. You don’t realize how quickly the time goes by. I think sometimes you’re out there playing and you’re thinking, ‘Okay, I’m done with this year. I have next year on the tour.’ I turned pro slightly before my 16th birthday. I retired just before my 32nd birthday. Those years just went by in the blink of an eye. Looking back, I could have enjoyed some moments a bit more, such as tournament victories. I think sometimes you win a tournament and if it’s a smaller tournament, you don’t really think twice about it. You kind of just say, ‘Okay, it was a great tournament, I won it. Next week.’ I probably would have taken more time to enjoy being ranked number two in the world. I also might have changed my mentality in certain aspects of training. Had I known that I was going to play professionally for over fifteen years, I probably would have approached training differently. Today, players on tour have great longevity thanks to how they take (more…)

May 13, 2020

May 13, 2020 “I was at a 10K in Italy, in 2015. I served and volleyed and went to turn. At that moment, I didn’t know. It was very painful, but we went to the hospital straight away, and they did an X-ray. They said it’s all fine. A few days later, I still wasn’t able to walk and I knew something wasn’t right. I had a MRI and they confirmed it was a full cruciate ligament tear. As I went back into the surgeon’s office and he told me– it sounds like a movie, but everything around me went blurry and I couldn’t— I didn’t hear anything he said after that.” My rehab went well, but then I had an ear infection. It was really swollen and infected. They had to operate on it. I was in the hospital with an IV drip because the infection got really bad. After they operated on it, I wasn’t able to sweat. I needed to keep the area dry and clean. I wasn’t able to train for three months after that. If it wasn’t for my family and friends, I think a lot of the time I just wouldn’t have even been (more…)

May 10, 2020

May 10, 2020 “I left my parents’ house in the center of Paris, when I was 12, to practice in the south of France. It was a tough choice, even though I wanted to go, I needed my parents but was choosing to be without them. I didn’t know how to cook or clean but I learned. I have always been a part of the federation. I knew that was where I needed to play to practice with the best players. There is less of a focus on school and more on tennis. I knew from the beginning tennis was for me but I didn’t know just how difficult it would be to be away from home. My parents understood but disagreed with the decision. They were telling me I was too young, that I could find ways to play tennis closer to home. They were convinced by my team around me that this was the best option. The first few months were not great. In just a few weeks I broke my leg. They had an obstacle course as a team building activity for all the kids and I fell off the tree. I was just there not able (more…)