Category: Story

Miranda Hart

September 16, 2019

September 16, 2019 “Tennis means a huge amount to me. I dreamt of being a pro and could have been good but life and injury conspired against me. It gives me more reason to be inspired by those who dedicate their life to follow their tennis passion and make it on to the tour, at whatever level. I am moved, inspired, excited and challenged when I watch tennis players. The mental resilience to be out there alone, the pressure at the top and the struggle at the bottom are extreme. Certain matches and players have had a big impact on my life in gathering courage, believing in myself, staying in the moment, keeping fit or to just be full of deep joy watching the sheer skill on display. There are many reasons but I think principally, because it’s a sport that is a battle of the individual, it’s paradoxically uniting. You feel empathy for players as you know how emotionally tough it must be, as well as physically. You empathize because every one of us has felt pressure, exhaustion, aloneness and stress, whatever our circumstances. We all struggle. Tennis players have to deal with so much, whether we recognize it (more…)

Fabrice Santoro

September 13, 2019

September 13, 2019 “Traveling was really the reason I had to stop. Even with the incredible fun I had on court when I was like 40 in the world I felt a need to change into a different field. On one side I feel lucky to be able to travel around the world and see different cultures, and on the other side it was just tiring. From New York to Tokyo and then Moscow, in one month, it’s three different worlds that you have to get used to. There’s a real chance that we never have a normal life. After 21 years on the tour, I couldn’t imagine seeing a suitcase in my living room any longer. I just wanted to be home. I’m not sure the crowd is always able to see the difference between a good and great match, but they can see the difference between someone having fun and someone not happy to be there. People come and watch my matches many times because they want a show. They came to forget their work for a few hours, to forget their problems. If they look at us and get a feeling that we are not happy to (more…)

Marcos Baghdatis

September 10, 2019

September 10, 2019 “I left my house when I was 14 and went to an academy in Paris, without my parents, all alone. I was staying with a family that was hosting me. This was the most difficult thing that I ever did. I had patches where I didn’t see my parents for about 10 months. Not only did I leave my parents but also my childhood friends and people that I grew up with. The toughest thing was not being around the ones I loved. I wanted to be a professional tennis player more than anything and was willing to sacrifice it all for my dream. Andre Agassi was my idol and after watching him win a Grand Slam it became my dream to be on tour and win a slam. Leaving home and being alone in Paris helped me start to understand what it really takes to be a champion and the sacrifices that are needed to become a professional athlete. It definitely wasn’t easy for my coaches. They knew they had to work on more of my mental side. They pushed to keep me happy and keep me going in tough times, which my host family helped (more…)

Alex De Minaur

September 8, 2019

September 8, 2019 “I had to be sidelined during my injury. I was expecting myself to come back at the same level, but ended up not being able to win a match for a fair bit. You start to doubt it all and ask yourself, “Jeez, what am I doing here? Why am I traveling?” It feels like there’s no positives. You’re traveling, away from home and you start to look at only the negatives. It takes so much effort to get yourself back into a positive head space going into the next tournament, until you lose first round again and it takes an even bigger toll. At Queens this year, after I lost my match, I didn’t want to get out of my room for a day. I finished at like 4:00 PM, went to Tescos and I bought five packets of lollies, chocolate and a Coke. I didn’t talk to anyone until midday the next day. That’s when you know you’re in a bad head space. The main thing that I realized is that anything that happens, on and off the court, highly affects you every time you play. I realized that I had to deal with my (more…)

Jason Collins

September 6, 2019

September 6, 2019 “As athletes, we’re trained since we are little to compete in all areas, but after my basketball playing days I wanted to compete in a more enjoyable way. One day, I was walking by these tennis courts and remember seeing this guy playing doubles; he looked like he was 80 years old. I was thinking to myself, that’s what I need, a sport where I can stay physically active for the rest of my life. If this 80 year old guy can play, I’m sure that I can get out there and not hurt my body. I went to Stanford with my twin brother Jarron, a year behind the Bryan twins, who we obviously became friends with— it’s a twin thing! I remember going to a match where they played in Los Angeles. My brother and I went and sat right behind Mike and Bob’s bench as we cheered them on. The Bryans were totally in game mode but that didn’t stop us from trying to get their attention. They kept ignoring us since they were so focused. I remember being that way too when I was playing basketball. It was very hard for someone in the (more…)

Coco & Breezy

September 3, 2019

September 3, 2019 “I think our end goal is building community. Through self-expression of producing music it becomes a universal language. If you think about it, you go to a party or any sporting event, it’s bringing people together. Through all the mediums in our life, we’re about building community and making it very inclusive for everyone. We want people to feel like they’re a part of something. Music and eyewear (Coco and Breezy Eyewear) are just a part of our lives and a part of our hearts that we get to share with the world. Sport has always been a part of us. We played basketball when we were younger and many Sundays we would watch football games with our father and rest of the family. I think sports for us, brought our family together. From a young age we were all for anything that brought people from different backgrounds together. It was really exciting to get the call to perform in Arthur Ashe Stadium. For me (Coco), tennis is life for my boyfriend. He grew up playing tennis and so it felt great that I got to be a part of something that my partner truly loves. He (more…)

Anastasia Potapova

September 1, 2019

September 1, 2019 “It’s a nonstop battle. When you begin playing Juniors, you’re starting from the bottom. I worked my way to the top which made me really happy but I immediately realized I had to start it all over again. As soon as your junior career ends you have to begin to do the same thing as a professional. It’s not easy coming in playing girls older and more experienced than me. Physically and mentally, to go from constant success to losing early every week is difficult. It doesn’t matter what I am doing, whether I’m playing tennis, in school or any other activity, I want them to go as planned, because I’m super competitive. I thankfully have an incredible team by my side that helped me. I’m also so stubborn. If I say yes to something I will do whatever it takes to get what I want. I never thought that I should be playing another sport. I just took my chance with tennis and worked everyday to achieve my dream. I never look forward, I always just live in the moment with what I have now. When I started playing pro tennis, reaching top 100 for even (more…)

Ekaterina Makarova

August 30, 2019

August 30, 2019 “I never think that I should be playing another sport but the long year of tennis is exhausting. Other sports have two-three months off to use as a break. I understand that other sports may push their players harder during the short seasons but there is no way they are put in the same amount of stressful situations as tennis players are. It’s tough to say because very few of us have played other sports at this level. Looking at the other side it might be extremely nerve-racking knowing you have to do well in a shorter amount of time rather than having the chance to play every week. We just don’t know, I can only speak about tennis. After the Olympics in 2016, all other sports went on holiday, to relax and recover, some for even over a year. Some girls from home, in synchronized swimming, rested for two years and then began preparing for the next Olympics. For the tennis players, it’s totally different since we had to fly to the US Open the next day. Everyone was looking at us like we were crazy. The travel is really one of the toughest parts of (more…)

Michael Kosta

August 26, 2019

August 26, 2019 “I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and my siblings and I would get on our bikes and ride down to the Ann Arbor Racquet Club to play tennis. It was always this big family event. I fell in love with the sport because it would always bring the people I loved together. Fast forward 20 years to this small island off the coast of South Korea, called Jeju Island. I was competing in a 10k Future. I’d been on the road maybe six or seven weeks and was just worn down. It wasn’t like I was winning every week. I was maybe making second round in singles with the occasional win/final in doubles. I was alone in this small fishing village where it was constantly raining. I managed to overcome loneliness and get to a point where I was playing well. I remember the moment when I felt the change. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why my confidence all of sudden improved, especially without a coach by my side. I’m playing on my own savings and a little bit of money I raised. I was up 5-1 serving in third and I can’t (more…)

Taro Daniel

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…)