- March 2013
Personal Statement
I am a student in my junior year at the European School of Brussels, Belgium. I was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and am of Portuguese nationality. Tennis is my passion. I have been playing tennis since I was 3 years old and my goal is to play tennis at the collegiate level while pursuing my studies. I am very committed, hardworking and I can push myself hard in the classroom and on the court. I am very athletic and I like to play on a team. My current tennis ranking is B-15.1 (5 US ranking). I am open to all possibilities but I wish to find a university that can offer me the right studies-sports balance.
I started doing tournaments in 2010. I played tennis almost every day and by the end of the season I moved up 7 rankings in the Belgium regional league! In 2011, I joined a structured tennis training program with a small group of female players (so-called “After 4” as we played every week day from 16h00, after school finished, plus Saturdays mornings and afternoons) , developing further my technique but also my physical strength. During that year I moved up another 3 rankings. 2012 was a very tough year for me: I broke my left foot at the beginning of the school year and it took me almost 1 year to recover to my normal shape. It was a most enduring experience for me but I learned how important it is to keep confident and be patient. During that period, I could only play in few tournaments (4) as I had to recover slowly. Yet, I succeeded in moving up another rank.
This year, I am training mostly privately with my coach and I’m working hard to obtain good results at the end of the season. I remain fully committed to playing tennis but I want to continue my studies too. For this reason, I am very keen on succeeding in getting a college in the US that offers me the right match between tennis and studies.
Historical rankings:
2009 (13 years old) - C.30 (US ranking 2)
2010 (14 years old) – B+4/6 (US ranking 4)
2011 (15 years old) – B-2/6 (US ranking 4.5)
2012 (16 years old) – B-15 (US ranking 5); I broke my left foot during the season and stopped playing during 7 months, therefore, I couldn’t play enough matches to move to a higher ranking.
