When I was around 7 years old, I began a Summer clinic to teach me the fundamentals of the game. Funny thing is, many of my friends today (8 years later), are a lot of the kids I grew up learning tennis with. When I got to about 9 years old, I had to switch hands at playing tennis. I was taught how to play being a leftie, and it was all about to change. I decided to train myself to become a rightie for the next year and the cool thing is, now I am what you consider ambidextrous (someone who can play with both hands), which I use to my advantage today in my matches.
When I was 11, I officially began competing in tournaments. I was am average player, and would end up maybe in the semi's of tournaments, but unfortunately for me, never "got the gold." Although this is discouraging for some, it only made me want to strive for perfection and get to the top. I began training long and hard in the Spring and Summer months when I was 12. At that age is when I really tried to master my game of serves, returns, strokes, movement, etc.
At the age of 13, I was in my very first doubles tournament. My partner and I had gone to the same school (and still do today), and were familiar with eachothers games. Defeating all our opponents, we actually won our bracket and defeated the winners of the other bracket, and won a really incredible award. This award really boosted my confidence as a player, and showed me that my hard work does pay off.
When I was 14, I began joining training programs after school and worked with personal pro tennis trainers to make my game even better than it was. At 15, this passed Summer, I had a serious hip injury, and was unable to compete in the tournament. The news was so discouring and disappointing, but I needed to keep my head up high. Last year, which was my freshman year of highschool, my doubles partner and I had an undefeated season 11-0 and were highly ranked in the Junior Varsity tournament amongst other schools in the state.
This year, 15-16 years of age, I am hoping to have another successful season. Right now, I am in several tennis clinics and will also be going to physical therapy because my hip isn't 100% recovered. I spent the last week/ week and a half watching the Australian Open on ESPN2, and saw my favorite tennis player Novak Djokovic win his 3rd straight title! He is my inspiration and role model. One of my dreams over the Summer is to leave the country to one of the big tennis matches, meet some of the players, and maybe get some signatures.
As you can see, tennis is a huge part of my life. It is a sport that truly can be played at all ages and is something just amazing to get involved in. I encourage each and every one of you to try a sport and be active. Of course it doesn't have to be tennis which is my personal passion, but it's a great feeling to be apart of a team, to sense a victory, and to know that the time and effort you put into sports will eventually pay off. Understand I went through several ups and downs in my tennis career so far, and I have been playing more than half my life! I hope this was an inspirational story and maybe taught each and every one of you a little bit about me, and understand that I am not full of hate when I speak my mind about this Kingdom Island, but I am completely honest with my opinions on things on and offline
