Freshman grows to love tennis through playing tournaments

Photo by Natalie Poon

Freshman Viki Toram swings her racket back, preparing to serve. 

When Viki Toram started playing tennis at age 4, she had absolutely no liking for it, wanting instead to do gymnastics or swimming. She played with her brother and dad but soon found playing with the same people boring, especially since she didn’t have many friends who played tennis at the time. But as the years went by and she started playing tournaments, her thoughts about the sport changed drastically for the better.

Toram, who played on the varsity team as a freshman,  specializes in singles, but enjoys occasional doubles since she finds it to be more relaxing. 

At 10, Toram started playing competitive tennis at Lu Academy at West Valley College. Because she was new to tournaments, the practices were stressful for her, but she soon found great improvement and relief from her match nerves through building up strong relationships.

“Matches are definitely stressful, but they’re also really rewarding,” Toram said. “I get to make a lot of friends, and it’s good exercise.”

While gaining experience through tournaments, Toram found herself improving a lot, which was also a huge part of her growing to like the sport. She said she especially enjoys the tension of long rallies that she was able to experience after improving to evenly match her opponents.

Instead of getting overwhelmed by tension or stress during matches, Toram has developed a consistent mindset that has become crucial to her winning each match. 

“When I’m winning, I try not to get over confident and keep the score there,” Toram said. “When I’m losing, I just try to stay focused.”

Playing so many matches has allowed Toram to solidify this mindset and use it during school matches as well. Over the summer, she played matches every weekend, but during the school tournament season she played outside matches just once or twice a month. On the school team, Toram was the No. 3 singles player after junior Sabrina Manea and sophomore Megha Horantur. She said she did not find her opponents hard to beat, likely because the team dropped a division this year. 

Just like her matches at the academy, Toram’s favorite part of tennis at school has been the people she has met. She enjoys playing with and traveling to other schools with the team.

Apart from playing tennis, Toram follows pro tennis — a habit she picked up during quarantine. She is inspired by tennis legends such as Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev.

“I hope to play in college, Division II or III hopefully,” Toram said. “I also want to continue after college to play for fun and keep myself fit.”