HPTC Tennis Memorial 2025 Scholarship Essay

By Hari Arunachalam

I first started watching tennis when I was only four years old. I remember watching Djokovic and Nadal battle it out for the 2010 US Open. That was the day I realized a few things about myself. First, I was now a huge Rafa fan. Even though I was super young at the time, I remember seeing Rafa run for every ball and play with a passion that was electrifying and contagious. Because of him, I started playing tennis a week later at the bubble. Like Rafa, I played left-handed, chased down every ball, and refused to give up during matches. Now that I am older, I still carry those same values with me - whether I’m on the tennis court or facing challenges in any other area of life. This mentality helped me finish with an undefeated regular season record of 11-0. Rafa influenced my goals as an athlete by making me strive to be a better player everyday.

The sport has also had an effect on my mental health and wellbeing. In high school, my grades have put a huge amount of stress on me. Because of this, I use sports as a coping strategy to limit stress. To be more specific, in my junior year, I was very stressed about my physics final. I used tennis as a way to give my brain a break from studying, whenever I needed it. Tennis helped me release the majority of stress because it allowed me to socialize with others and to focus on another task. Because of tennis, I was able to lower my stress while still getting an A in the class. When I attend college in the fall, I will use tennis as a coping strategy for anything giving me stress or anxiety.