Senior Sofia Olaru has put down her tennis racket for good. By 13, she ranked among the top 25 players nationwide in her age group and dominated the Midwest rankings the following year, winning national and international tournament titles. Yet after years of relentless training and high-stakes competition, she chose to walk away.
Olaru’s parents began encouraging her to play sports since before kindergarten, and she gravitated toward tennis.
“I started at Naperville Tennis Club, and then I moved to Five Star Tennis Center,” Olaru said. “It was probably a couple of group classes a week, two-ish, and then a private lesson. When I was about 11-12 it really amped up. I would have a private lesson before school and after school I’d go straight back to the club.”
Throughout middle school Olaru trained for at least three hours a day, 20 hours a week, making it difficult to find time for other aspects of her life; the struggle continued as she entered high school.
“I would hangout with my friends like five times a semester because I was taking five weighted classes and I wanted at least a 4.6 or 4.7 [GPA] for those semesters,” Olaru said. “There wasn’t any time for a social life.”
Around the end of freshman year, Olaru began losing her initial enjoyment of the sport, leading to burnout.
“By the time I stopped enjoying [tennis], I was just too far into it,” Olaru said. “I was already going to all these national and international tournaments and so it was kind of too late to stop.”
Many of Olaru’s peers didn’t know about her tennis career—including Senior Rhea Jha, a captain of Central’s girls tennis team. When Jha met Olaru during their sophomore year, she was unaware Olaru played tennis at all.
“I was really surprised that she was an athlete,” Jha said. “I remember she would always explain things to me in Honors Algebra Two, and I was really impressed because she was pretty, social, smart and really athletic, so I was like wow, all four of them.”
Likewise, senior Sahana Patil, another team captain noticed Olaru’s demeanor.
“I would ask her how her spirit’s so carefree,” Patil said. “I remember she was really nice when I talked to her, but she seemed very disinterested in being at practice, which is very fair because she was better than everyone else.”
Despite her reserved demeanor, Olaru was amazed by the team spirit and dynamics, and enjoyed the new environment; before she joined Central’s team, she played club tennis.
“I remember thinking it was so weird how big of a community it was because, in club tennis, your peers are your biggest competition,” Olaru said. “Those are the people you see at the tournaments, and I remember thinking it was insane how [much] more comfortable I felt in the high school tennis environment.”
Still, Olaru felt intense pressure during her first two high school seasons, despite support from her teammates.
“I remember [Central alumni] Giana Xiao and Hanna An, […] they were the comedic relief,” Olaru said. “There was never something that they did that wasn’t funny, and they could tell I was always freaking out, and [they] took away the seriousness that I put on myself.”
Ultimately, two surgeries were the main catalysts for her decision to stop playing tennis. Her first experimental surgery at age 13 seemed to be successful, until she turned 16 and discovered that she needed another. Consequently, she made the decision to walk away from tennis.
“It was a blessing in disguise […] I didn’t realize how much fun I was missing out on by just freaking out about college tennis, and I didn’t really care,” Olaru said. “I was like okay, I get to play and spend time with my friends.”
Deciding to quit tennis after high school lifted a huge weight off her shoulders, allowing her to enjoy the rest of her high school experience without stressing about the possibility of collegiate sports.
“I am beyond happy,” Olaru said. “I think that it’s completely worth it because if you think about it, the whole reason that my parents put me into tennis was so that I would […] commit to a good school just because of tennis. But I don’t think that’s worth it. I would much rather go to a school that’s 10 rankings lower, in my field, if I can have a social life and free time.”
Now, Olaru plans to earn an undergraduate degree in biology. The years she spent in tennis shaped her ability to manage time, regulate emotions, and adapt to challenges.
“I don’t regret it at all,” Olaru said. “I honestly don’t wish it went any differently, because I think the skill set that I gained from it is invaluable. Yeah, I wish I had been able to do things, I wish this, I wish that. But all in all, I’m really, really, really glad that I played a sport at a high level.”