Standing in a library at the age of 9, junior Hasun Nguyen picked up a book about tennis called “Prince of Tennis”. Little did he know, the novel would spark a lifelong interest in the sport. 

“I played once, then I got a coach and just kind of got into it,” Nguyen said.

Seven years later, Nguyen now plays on the varsity tennis team and practices every day.

“I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.”

Nguyen played on the junior varsity team as a freshman and won the district title. As a sophomore, he moved up to the varsity team, which won the team district championship last fall.

“I feel like junior varsity is more about community, while varsity is more about the sport,” Nguyen said. “I feel like people on junior varsity are there because they want to be on a team and they want to be included in the club, which I think is great. But I think varsity is where you find the people who want the best of both worlds. They want to play the sport because they love it, and they’re also there for the community.”

Because of his intense practice schedule, practicing for two hours every day, Nguyen said  he often experiences burnout. His preferred methods for alleviating it are taking breaks, exercising and spending time with other people.

“Just talking to people can help you vent out emotion,” Nguyen said. “I game with friends or call people and do other stuff like homework.”

Despite the stress he experiences due to tennis, Nguyen said he keeps coming back to the sport because he’s made some very close friends from the school tennis team and through participating in other tournaments.

“You meet a lot of very cool people who are interested in the same things as you,” Nguyen said. “Once you have friends from different events, you can keep becoming better friends because you can always talk to them and you can always ask them for advice.” 

Nguyen said that his mindset is “tennis first, academics as a close second” but that academics take up a large part of his time, often forcing him to stay up late to finish homework.

“My sleep schedule is definitely impacted because if I come back from an event and it’s really late, I still have to stay up and do [schoolwork],” Nguyen said.

Even when it’s hard, such as when recovering from a stress fracture before his sophomore season, Nguyen possesses a genuine love for the sport. He just keeps coming back to tennis.

“[All the challenges] just made me want to come back to the sport,” Nguyen said. “I really love the sport and just wanted to come back to it as fast as I can.”