Behind The Racquet • Shares A Behind The Scenes With Tennis 10sBalls • ATP’s Jared Donaldson

Editor’s note: 10sBalls thanks Noah Rubin for giving us permission to repost these great stories. We wish him and this endeavor the best of luck. Great seeing Noah wearing K-Swiss and playing Solinco Strings.

 

“When I was 14 years old, I left home to train on red clay in Argentina for two and half years. I improved greatly from this, getting my first ATP point at 16 years old. I was extremely excited knowing my hard work has paid off and I was maybe one of the top players in my age for the world. It was now time to play Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl in Florida, which are two of the most prestigious junior tournaments in the world. I felt confident that I would play on par with the best juniors in the world and potentially compete for a title. It was the complete opposite of my expectations. It was truly disheartening to not have the results that I thought I would have. I lost a lot of confidence after realizing these other players were vastly ahead of me. It led to my overall unhappiness when I didn’t get the affirmation I thought I deserved. A couple weeks later I lost to a player I previously beat, and that was when I told my father I didn’t want to play anymore. I am not getting the satisfaction from all the sacrifice of working hard and living in another country. I gave my coach a lot of credit at the time. He understood that I needed a break, but he wanted me to realize that this didn’t have to be the end. In my head I was completely done with tennis and wanted to just go back to school. While visiting colleges, I started to figure out there wasn’t much direction in my life. I was missing that key component that I needed, which was competition. The online poker I played, during my vacation from tennis, wasn’t enough. I was used to achieving great things at a really high level. It is a unique intensity, that kids on a more traditional path may not understand. It was ironic that during the limited amount of tennis in those three months, I was able to improve drastically because it wasn’t life and death anymore. I then decided that the void was too big and I needed to go back to competing. While coming back and competing in futures, I was no longer comparing myself to others. I just wanted to do what was best for me. Everyone is on their own path. What one person does isn’t necessarily reflective of what you should be doing. Each journey is individual and unique.” – Jared Donaldson

 

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Twitter | @JaredD

Instagram | @jared_donaldson

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