Tennis is about decision-making. In the time it takes for the ball to leave your opponent’s racket and reach yours, you’re forced to figure out where it’ll land, how you’re going to reach it, where your opponent is and will be, where to place the ball, how much power to use and where you’re going to position yourself once you return the shot. Those are just the basics. And you have less than a second to figure it all out.
That’s about as long as it took Carol Zhao to make the biggest decision of her young career. Three years ago, Zhao had reached No. 9 in the world junior rankings, highlighted by her 2013 Australian Open doubles title at the age of 17. The Beijing-born, Toronto-raised player, who honed her game at Tennis Canada’s National Training Centre in Montreal, had a well-worn path to the pros laid out in front of her. Instead, she chose to attend Stanford. “I had opportunities to turn pro right away,” Zhao, 21, says today. “But I always wanted to go to college. That wasn’t something I was going to shy away from.”
While she saw others from her NTC class, like Eugenie Bouchard, find success going the traditional route, Zhao’s decision has paid off. With an aggressive all-court game that made her a terror in the NCAA, she went 76-16 and was named an All-American in each of her three years at Stanford. In early June, she led her school to an NCAA championship. Two weeks later, she announced she was finally joining the pro ranks full time. “I was never an overnight success story,” she says. “I worked at it, plugged away and had consistent results over a number of years. My last year of juniors, I realized I could compete with the best in the world. That belief never wavered because I went to school, which is a common misconception. College was a stepping stone, a part of the process to get to where I want to be.”
The decision sets up a pivotal summer for Zhao that includes her second straight appearance at the Rogers Cup and an opportunity to climb the rankings. She’s already off to a strong start, reaching the finals of her first tourney since turning pro, but knows she’s entering a chapter in her tennis life that’s yet to be written. “My main focus is figuring out my identity as a player,” she says. “What are my strengths, and how can I magnify those? You can always get better.”