Tennis plays a very large role in the USA, annually about 1000 scholarships are awarded with a value of 70 million Dollars. The college teams receive excellent supervision from highly professional coaches as well as excellent medical care. The team doctor is a member of the team as a matter of course, in addition to one or more Physiotherapists who work with modern methods and technology.
The Special Factor
Many tennis teams acquire the special factor by cooperating with local tennis clubs. This enables them to continuously receive new input, which works as a multiplier on the college teams. In Germany tennis is very much a one man sport, whereas in the USA you have the feeling of belonging to a team and this enables you to reach levels you never previously dreamed of.
Why do you need Scholarbook’s help?
You probably get a lot of offers from coaches regarding a sport scholarship. However more often than not these offers don’t comply with your needs regarding what the university has to offer or the quality of the tennis team. This is where Scholarbook can help. We have contact to universities in the 1st Division and can help you to get offers from these universities. If the offers don’t live up to your expectations, we have a full money-back guarantee. On top of this we will function as your assistant throughout the registering process, making sure you don’t miss deadlines and if necessary representing you at registering procedures. However you will have to appear at the embassy to apply for your visa. We will save you time and effort and protect you from the risk of everything not working out at the last minute.
Timing
The best time to go to the USA on a sports scholarship is straight after you finish school. College coaches prefer to give scholarships to younger students, as it enables them to continually train and improve a player’s performance over a period of four years. It is also possible to go to the US for just one year. Due to the contact we have to a large number of college coaches we have been able to help athletes after they have completed their Bachelor to do their Master in the USA. The best timing is if you contact us about one year before you plan to start studying in the USA. Tennis players can either start in January (Spring Semester) or August (Fall Semester).
What is required to get a tennis scholarship?
It is not easy to say who has a chance of getting a scholarship and who has no chance. Due to our good contacts to a large number of coaches, it is often possible for us to arrange a scholarship where others would fail. The best thing to do is fill out our Opportunity Assessment form and we will let you know what your chances are as soon as possible.
The best time to start your scholarship is in the autumn after you finish school. This means that you have a smooth transition from school to college and can take an active part in the preparation phase of the American tennis season.
Competing
There are few countries in which tennis is so important as in the USA. A perfect example of this is the US Open, which has been taking place for men since 1881 and for women since 1887. It is one of the Grand Slam tournaments (the French Open, the US Open, Wimbledon Championships and the Australian Open) It plays not only some of the highest prize money, but also gives the most World Ranking Points.
Inter-college tournaments attract a lot of spectators and are regularly broadcast on TV. The facilities provided in the USA are perfect for combining the time intensive training for a sport such as tennis with a scholarship. The members of your team will come from all over the world, to enjoy the privilege of being awarded a tennis scholarship in the USA.
College sport offers international students the ideal opportunity of taking the first steps towards playing at international top level and enables them to play at the big tournaments after they finish at college. A number of German players have gone down this road in the past including Benjamin Kohllöffel, who won the NCAA title in 2006 or Marco Born who won the doubled title in 2010, not forgetting Ben Becker* who is now playing under the top 100 in the world. See his portrait below.
The main tennis season for men and women is the Spring Semester, which starts in January and ends after the National Championships in May. Tennis players can than play matches in Europe during the last two weeks in May, the whole of June and July and the first two weeks in August before returning to the US for the Fall Semester which runs from august to December. During this time the teams play preparation tournaments to increase their playing experience.
Ben Becker*
Ben Becker*’s career shows what excellent conditions the tennis players experience in the USA and how it is the overall package of both study and sport that is a deciding factor in the individual development of each player. Here an extract from Ben Becker*’s homepage…..
“In the year 2000 I was awarded a scholarship in the USA […..]this put down the foundations for my professional career.
Matt Knoll trained a tennis crazy member of the University of Waco’s college team. 6am training, then school, then training again [….] During his time at the Baylor University in Waco,Texas he was not only individual American College Champion in 2004 but also team champion. In November 2005 Ben* changed his plans and decided to become a professional Tennis player and started the long climb up the world ranking list, playing at second and third class tournaments. In June 2006, he qualified for his first Grand slam tournament. He won his first round match in Wimbledon against the Argentinean Juan Ignacio Chela only to be narrowly beaten in the second round in his first match over five sets, by the Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. In 2006 as Nr. 112 on the World Ranking list he qualified for the US Open in New York. He won his first round match against the Italian Filippo Volandri and his second round match against the seeded player from France, Sébastien Grosjean, however in the third round he came up against the American old hand Andre Agassi. It was a dramatic match over 4 sets, 7:6, 6:7, 6:4, and 7:5 and it was Ben Becker* who stayed on top and actually ended Agassi’s career. Agassi had announced before the US Open that this would be his last Tournament.”
American Tennis Stars
Here a selection of the most successful tennis players of all times and record holding World Ranking list number 1 players.
Pete Sampras 286
Roger Federer 285
Ivan Lendl 270
Jimmy Connors 268
John McEnroe 170
Björn Borg 109
Andre Agassi 101
Source: Wikipedia, status May 31 2010
As you can see 4 US Americans are under the top 7 of all times. At the top of the list is ‘Pistol Pete’, Pete Sampras and please note that even after their active playing career the top athletes often refer to their top training as juniors as being the optimal preparation for their later careers. That is why you should also perhaps take the opportunity of enjoying the same facilities as the stars in the tennis scene did.
* Scholarbook didn’t help Ben Becker to get an athletic scholarship in the United States. Ben is herewith used as an impressive example about the success one can achieve after his or her college career.
