Evan Keating '22 Recruiting Profile

I’ve played almost every sport possible throughout my life but something has always drawn me towards tennis despite enjoying most sports. Whether it’s the individuality or competitive nature of tennis, I chose it over every other sport and it has become a part of my daily life and personality. I believe without tennis my life would be somewhat bland, lacking an outlet for my competitive spirit and athletic talent. Throughout much of my junior tennis I endured plenty of adversity including injuries and setbacks but matured as a player and a person as a result. I wish to pursue a college lifestyle of balancing tennis with academics, on top of the traditional opportunities of college.  

I began tennis at the age of nine and immediately fell in love with the sport and progressed quite fast winning or going far in high level tournaments from the very beginning of my tournament play. This changed, however, around age 12 when winning a match took more than just talent, and I was introduced to the reality of competitive tennis. Looking back this was more of a blessing than a curse but at the time I played less tennis and focused on team sports instead, until I broke my ankle at age 13 and was sidelined from everything for 6 months. I struggled fighting through tennis matches and pulling out wins but with experience and more tournaments it became easier, especially as I reached high school tennis. I absolutely loved the team atmosphere of high school tennis and experienced some of my most memorable matches.

Upon entering Deerfield high school, I began to successfully focus on my tennis and play tournaments regularly to up my stats and increase my UTR to mid-9s and top 15 in Illinois on tennis recruiting in about 8 months of play. Also, I won conference on court 2 varsity singles my freshman year, despite fighting through re-occurring back pain brought on by a growth spurt and gain of over 7 inches in height that year. I did play through the pain to help my team and myself win our conference, but during & after that season I went through intense physical therapy for 7 months and have not had any back pain since. It did mean though that all my hard work and tennis progress came to a halt.

My parents allowed me to attend Advantage Tennis Academy in California for my second semester sophomore year (spring 2020) and work with a coach named Jimmy Johnson, recommended by my Chicago coach, to help me regain technique lost when not playing. In my opinion, Jimmy Johnson has made the biggest impact on my technique as he redesigned almost everything about my game besides my serve. Coming back from CA I was very confident in my technique but hadn’t played any tournaments in quite a long time and I was eager to get some tournament play. Covid-19 was in full swing last summer when I returned to IL and IL had strict guidelines allowing play only within a player’s county which severely limited competitive tournaments.

I was able to travel to Ohio to play a level 3 in the fall, and have posted highlights of the first set of my first match (all that recorded).  Currently, I am starting my High School Junior year season at Lake Forest High School (we moved a month after school began) and want to play as many tournaments as I can as the year-long Covid-19 restrictions come to an end.   

I have always weighed tennis and school equally and do my best to prioritize them as needed and plan to continue to do so in college. I understand the sacrifices needed in order to play tennis well and excel in my classes simultaneously, as I have already experienced many adversities and obstacles in my life and have learned to fight for what I want to achieve. I have big entrepreneurial hopes for my future post college, and hope to form relationships in college that will last the rest of my life.

UPDATE: As of July 2021 I am in my senior year of high school playing football during the fall season.