by Addison Tripp
El Diamanté’s top two tennis players Miah Leal and Grace Yates were interviewed with questions about their sport and personal game. These tennis players are very excited for the upcoming season. They are both competitive, driven, and talented players who shared specific experiences and insight into the El Diamanté tennis team when interviewed.
Miah Leal is a junior playing for El Diamanté’s varsity tennis team. She joined tennis because when she was little tennis was always on TV at her house. She remembers the TV broadcasting the most recent game and watching it with her dad.
Leal recalls, “When I would watch it, I would think about how fun it looked. I knew I wanted to play it someday”.
Leal is now fulfilling that goal with her dad supporting her tennis journey the whole way. She explains how she started her tennis journey in first grade and how through that process she ended up making varsity as a freshman.
Grace Yates is also a Junior on the varsity team, and her biggest accomplishment is winning second for EYL last year. When Yates was asked similar questions, she shared that she joined tennis because her friend Miah was playing it. Yates has been playing tennis for years, however, she got competitive and truly involved freshman year.
Both players were asked to give insight into their challenges and strategies. Leal and Yates claim that their favorite school to play is Redwood. Miah expressed that Redwood is a super challenging team to play. Despite this, she explains how their tough competition leads her to play better and meet the standards provided. Leal also describes how to get through these challenges, she thinks of ways to overcome her opponent as she plays.
Leal explains, “When I am warming up I’ll watch my opponent and find their weaknesses, then I will use that against them”.
Yates agrees that Redwood is her favorite team to play, and claims that every time she plays them, she gets more and more determined to beat them. To get past challenges in her game, she tries to focus on her mental game and prevent overthinking plays. A strategy that Yates uses when playing is to catch her opponent off guard.
She explains it as, “I’ll hit to the corners, deep or short”.
Both girls have big plans for their future. They both want to continue their education and go to college at great schools. Yates does not want to pursue tennis or any other sport in college. She loves the sport but expresses how college and tennis won’t line up with her goals for Yates’ dream school, UC San Diego. Leal, on the other hand, shares how it’s her dream to play tennis on a scholarship in Hawaii. The University of Hawaii is her dream school and going for tennis would just be a bonus.
Lastly, Yates and Leal shared a funny moment from their time playing tennis. Miah told about one time when El Diamanté was playing tennis at a tournament. It was a Saturday afternoon, and she was going against Redwood’s #1 player. She describes how her opponent hit a ball short and she ran to get it. She hit the ball over, but then her success was followed by her momentum and she fell into the net.
Leal laughed, “It was embarrassing, and Coach Harding just followed up with a ‘Good effort, Miah’”.
Similarly, Yates shared how she was playing a scrimmage, and in one of her games her opponent also hit a ball short and she had to run to retrieve it. “I tripped and fell straight on my face”, she describes.
Grace and Miah both have some good challenges, goals, and funny moments. These girls are both representing El Diamante and making the Miner community proud. They encourage everyone to try out for the tennis team and they love the fun memories it has given them.