Alumni Spotlight

I started playing tennis at the boys and girls club. At nine years old I was homeschooled. My mother knew how much I loved to play the sport. She would do anything for me. Between wanting to spend time with my...

When growing up, in order to play tennis at a high level, you need to have some money in your family. My mom had cancer three times. First diagnosed when I was around ten. It had a large strain on...

I began playing tennis at the age of four. Growing up in Croatia, a war-torn country in the 90s, I dreamed about playing professionally; I saw it as a vessel to a better life with more opportunity, and the...

Gabriel Sellmer came all the way from Brazil to play college tennis for Nebraska Wesleyan. But early on, his time in Nebraska was more plagued with doubts & mental struggles than the joy of being a collegiate athlete. It wasn't...

I have suffered from depression since my early teens. I finally shared my story in a Telegraph article at the beginning of 2018, but, by that time, I’d been grappling with whether to go public with my struggle for years. Here's...

College tennis has played a huge role in getting me to where I am today, but it was far from the best years of my life. During my freshman year, I heard these two phrases a lot: These are the...

This is something that I struggled with. During my first few months traveling it was just me and I thought everything was great, living out of hotels, everything just seemed easy. It might’ve been my third month after a lot...

My family had very little money, and a tennis scholarship put me through my undergraduate years at UCLA. I had always been a good mathematician, and so I majored in physics, graduating with my B.A. in four years. It...

“If it were not for a great team of doctors and what I’m sure had to be a lot of prayers by friends and family, I would not be alive today. In January, I will be reminded that three...

To let down the people closest to me, my friends and family is my most daunting fear. From an early age, I was pretty aware of how many lives I affected. How many people had to sacrifice time, energy and...