Behind The Racquet

“I wouldn’t say I started playing tennis because there was a natural love for it. It was more so that I’m very competitive with my sister, and I wanted to beat her when we played. That dynamic continued until she stopped.

Growing up, I got to live in a lot of countries, and I appreciate the moves because I got a little bit of everything from each place. I think, in that way, I’m able to have an open mind, open eyes, and get to connect with so many people.

Growing up, my mom was constantly focused on me finishing my exams and getting my degree. She didn’t mind me playing pro, as long as I went to school.

College tennis helped me on the court, but also immensely outside of the court. At school, you’re able to learn who you are and how to function with other people just in a day-to-day setting. It was those kinds of little things that really, I had to learn over time. Being able to study my major was really great, too. I’ve always been very curious, so I majored in international relations on the environmental science and technology track.

Being pro now, I’m slowly starting to see where I’m fitting in and how my game’s developing. It takes time, because when you just throw yourself suddenly into something, sometimes you have to ground yourself and balance out again, which is where I feel like I’m at right now.

Everyone has ups and downs throughout their career. I’ve even had a few thoughts about maybe stopping, because there are difficulties in everything, and not just in sport or tennis. I always knew I’d regret it if I didn’t go fully into it and recognize my potential. That’s always in the back of my mind, but I think you continue because you love to do it. That’s why you start in the beginning, and that’s why people continue, I guess, until you can’t.

At the end of the day, being able to win is great, having a good ranking is important, but I feel like if I’m able to use my platform throughout my career I’ll look at that as a success. However big or small it may be, that is the most successful thing I can think of.” Lulu Sun # BTR

Tennis didn’t run in my family. No sport really did – my parents are both electrical engineers. It was a bit…out of coincidence. There was a push into both academics and sports from my family, but there was a strong push from my dad on sport. Initially, there was actually a lot of resistance from my end in terms of going fully into tennis. Once I finished high school, I went overseas and the emotions of my journey really hit me. I was 17 when I moved. Having it be my first time without my friends, my family…I struggled. During that time, I was enrolled in the University of Sydney, but deferred for two years.Before I went to Spain, though, my eventual college coach approached me and wanted me to come to Illinois. That’s when I started leaning towards the US college path. In the back of my mind, I still wanted to make it pro. Some people around me weren’t sure about the idea of college, but I was pretty committed to it. I came up with this formula in my head on the likelihood of making it pro after going to college, and wanted to prove it right in a way. The team and college environment, it’s so good to improve as a person and as a player, whether that’s for a year or for four. I think that’s where the love of the game, more so the love of me getting better at something, really came about. I would’ve been a sinking ship if I hadn’t gone. At the time, when you’re 17, and you’re going against the grain, you’re not the brave person. It’s just seen as, “Well, your tennis is done.” So I’m proud of myself for making that decision. It was so deep within me that I was like, “I know this is something I need to do, or my tennis career is done as well.” Being on the tour for a bit now, success, in the coming years, will just look like getting the best out of myself. I’m not really going for a number, because I think that’s very superficial. It’s a nonstop comparison in this sport – even if you’re number three in the world, you’re comparing yourself to the number one guy. But for me, it’s not something I’m latching onto. Whatever my body and myself can give my tennis is great.

“My brother and I would play with balloons, setting up the couch as a net, and just smack it back and forth. Then every Sunday night, my mom and I would play against my brother and dad – a little mixed doubles action. From there, I just fell in love with the game.

My brother playing in college and my mom being a tennis pro, I always grew up in the tennis environment. I just had great role models to look up to, and I’m really lucky to have them.

When you break the top 100 as a tennis player, I think that’s a huge goal that everyone has. When you do it, it’s this huge weight lifted off your back. When that happened for me, it was a huge milestone. From there, I was into so many more WTA main draws and had more opportunities.

I think comparison is the thief of joy, in tennis and in life. It’s super hard, because we’re out here, seeing the same players every week. It’s natural to compare, but I think the biggest thing is to just focus on your journey. What are your goals? What are you trying to work on each day?

I’ve learned, obviously, the hard way with my injury, but everyone’s journey is so different.
There were so many tough moments when I was injured. But also so many beautiful moments. I started having some elbow issues back in 2023. I was playing in pain for so long, I truly lost to the joy of the sport. It was super hard.

I started with the conservative route, because you don’t want to just jump into surgery. After a few months of trying other avenues, I still didn’t feel right. So I had the surgery, and coming back from that was super hard.

Not going to lie, there were a lot of times where I didn’t know how I was going to get back to playing multiple matches a day. I was going out and hitting balls, then waking up super stiff the next day. And I didn’t know who I could talk about it to, because it’s not a super common surgery in tennis. It was a real struggle.

Just a lot of mental battles. Even more than physical, I’d say. Learning to trust myself again…I honestly still think I am. I just have a whole new perspective on tennis now. Every time I step out on the court, I’m just so grateful to be out there and just trying to soak it up, whether I’m playing well or not.” Caty McNally

“My dad’s a tennis coach, and I have an older brother and sister who played a bit. They were both very athletic, but whenever they were on the tennis court, I used to go pick up balls for them. I was just eager to get out there. My whole family’s from Japan and moved over before I was born. I was born in Sydney and Australia’s all I’ve ever known, but there were a lot of cultural things I learned. My mum and dad would cook Japanese food at home, and they tried to make sure I knew the language. I try to embrace the positives of both cultures, and it’s been a big part of my identity. I always felt like I had the level and potential to play professionally and do well. But my mum was pretty big on me going to college. She was worried about academics and making sure I had something to fall back on. For me, I knew a few years of getting good work under my belt would be good, too. UNC was the place for me. There’s no better place, and I learned so much there. Playing tennis at the pro level, I think everyone also has doubts. It doesn’t matter how confident of a person you are, there’s always going to be moments where you question yourself and ask if this was the right path. You just have to make sure those moments are short-lived. After winning a slam, I wouldn’t say there’s pressure to continue performing at a certain level. I feel like the biggest thing I wanted was to make sure I proved it wasn’t a fluke. When we won the title, we hadn’t played that much doubles at the time and I didn’t really have good doubles results. I wanted to just make sure that I got a few other good results along the way so I couldn’t be called a one-hit wonder. At the end of the day, I don’t necessarily think there’s a magic ingredient to success. There’s always ups and downs. Consistent effort and discipline is the key. I feel like my progress has always been quite gradual and steady. You see other players break through immediately, at 18, and they’re already top 30 in the world. That hasn’t been my story, but I'm pretty proud of the way I’ve always tried to develop and keep improving. I’m lucky to do this. This is what I dreamed of as a kid, so to be living it out is a pretty surreal thing.”

“Growing up, we had two tennis courts in front of our house. When I was a little kid, I remember watching all the other kids playing, so my parents signed me up for the tennis school. And from then, I loved it. I didn’t even try football, hockey – it was tennis or nothing for me.

Since the beginning, I did quite well. It started with playing a couple of tournaments in the Czech Republic. Once I got to the point where I was playing in other countries, or starting to play internationally, I started to realize that I was doing pretty well, playing pretty well against the guys that were my age around the world.

The transition from the juniors to the Futures was tough, though. When I started to play at a higher level, I quickly realized there are no free points. In the juniors, you can get away with a few mistakes from your opponent and take advantage of them being down mentally, but in the Futures, everyone is super focused. It helped me realize that the key to that next level is the mental element and your focus.

Even though I’m only nineteen, I feel fortunate for the success I’ve had so far. Being on the tour, I’ve gotten to experience a lot, and I think those experiences are even more important than the learnings. I’ve gotten to watch other players, see how they put their entire lives into tennis.

For tennis players, it’s quite tough to live your personal life. It’s difficult to keep your privacy for yourself. At the end of the day, I’m human. Of course, I’m a tennis player, but I’m not a robot that’s just playing the tournament. I think about other things than tennis, and I try to find an escape through spending time with my friends, family and girlfriend.

There are still moments where I question if I should do something else. When I lose, I think, “God, I’m putting in all this hard work and sometimes it’s not paying off.” But being patient and trusting that things will work out is the key. I’m trying to not let myself think about doing other things. Everything in my life has been to get to the level I’m at right now, so I don’t take it for granted.”

“My first memory of playing tennis was playing a doubles tournament for kids and their moms. I have an older brother, so he played doubles with my mom and I played with my mom’s friend. I lost, but I still remember the moment.

My brother wanted to go pro and my dad was a tennis player in Japan, so I said, “Okay, I want to do it too.” I think I was around 10 years old when I made that decision.

There were definitely moments where I wanted to do other things. My dad was a very tough man. If we wanted to do something different, like playing soccer, baseball, those kinds of things, my dad would say, “No, you can’t do this. If you want to be a player, just play tennis.” So I did.

Sometimes it was tough, but there were lots of moments that were enjoyable as well. Im remember playing the Junior French Open and after I lost, I called my mom and said, “I can’t do this anymore.” But it’s ups and downs. At the end of the day, even after losses, you still love tennis and that’s the reason I can stand here.

Even though I’m the number one Japanese player now, it doesn’t feel like it. With Kei still playing, I still believe he’s number one. It’s not a matter of ranking or results, it’s more about experience and a combination of other things. I like that he’s still here because it takes the pressure off of me. Of course, there’s moments like playing Davis Cup where you have to step up. But it’s also fun and you have to enjoy the moment representing your country. Pressure’s pressure, and I can find a way to enjoy it at the end of the day.

Even in tough moments, like when I ruptured my ACL, I try to find ways to be happy about it. When that happened in Miami, after so much crazy time being a tennis player and traveling to so many different countries, I could almost enjoy the moment because I got to stay in Japan for the year. It’s very crazy to think about, but I don’t know. I found a way to be happy about it.

Of course, I hope I can play tennis for a long time. But I’ve started to support the Japanese juniors. For the past four years, I’ve held a tennis tournament in Japan where the winner is given a sponsorship. I really want to support both the juniors who want to go pro, and the ones that are just out there enjoying tennis. Rather than pursuing something like coaching, when my career comes to an end I’d like to continue with something like this on the business side.”

Yoshihito Nishioka

“I was lucky. My first main coach, Scott, always believed in me. He always thought I had the potential. Did I believe that? I don’t know. Probably not, but I was the guy that always took it one step at a time.

I was good in juniors, but I wasn’t insane. I wasn’t winning two slams. I knew I was going to college for a couple of years and then I was going to play afterwards.

It’s interesting seeing this core group of Americans that are a little younger than me. I don’t take it personally, not always being in the conversation. Those guys, Fritz, Tommy, they’re top 10 in the world now, Foe is making semis. Just Sinner, Alcaraz, all these guys, the level they’re producing is crazy. Again, I don’t view that as a negative. If I were to be making deep runs in tournaments consistently, making the semis of slam, yeah, there would be more. But I haven’t done that, so I can’t really expect that.

One thing about me, is it did take me a while to break through. I don’t really think that helps you in terms of the spotlight. If you’re 25 when you get into the top 100, they’re already looking for the next batch, and the next guys were there. It keeps a fire lit under me, because I know how hard it is to get there and I know it can be gone so fast. These years, they roll on. I’m 31, which is crazy. The guys just get younger, and I still feel good.

It was a tough time to get here. A few years ago, my parents split up and I was going through a hip injury. The hip injury was difficult because it wasn’t one of those things where it was incredibly debilitating, but it lingered. Then, once I got surgery, it probably took me a good 10 months to be really playing well.

Once I got back to playing, I was excited to get going. A part of me, I really enjoyed the time back home and to not be traveling. But it was nice to start slow – it was a progression. It took a long time before I felt like myself again. For a while I couldn’t even hit a serve over 95 miles an hour, and that’s not going to cut it.

But even through the injury and coming back and my parent’s divorce, tennis was an outlet. During that time with my family and after the surgery, it made me think about, “Why am I playing tennis? Is this really my decision? Why am I doing this?” You have these moments when you’re traveling, alone, getting ready to play, and you’re like, “What am I doing with my life? I’m traveling the world to play tennis.” And it all sounds incredibly, I don’t know, entitled?

But then you realize, of course, it’s something that you love to do. But also, it’s something that the people in my life are invested in too. They’ve given me so much to do this, and I’m a representative of them as well. I want to make them all proud, just like I want to make myself proud.”

“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 along, but people were never putting much pressure on me. She was a typical person that could pick up anything and do it really well. I actually struggled more keeping up with her, but it’s healthier now. She works in finance and has a completely different life. The tour can be a really brutal place – a very isolating experience — and I think it’s a blessing in disguise. My perspective on tennis has changed from when I was younger. I don’t really play for anyone at this point. When my mom passed away, it was a big event, but it wasn’t as sad of an experience as I would have expected. It was way more of a slow burn, then just boom, sadness. Real success for me now is in the relationships I’m building with my team, not just as a team, but also as people. Down the road, without tennis, I’d definitely like to do something to help people. I love studying. Maybe I’ll become a life coach of some sort. Even though I have a bad memory from that as a teenager, I think that maybe I can help people through similar experiences and guide them to a different perspective.” Taro Daniel