 | With a family full of tennis fans, Florida's Julia Cohen has used in-house competition as a way of bettering her own game. Photo courtesy of Julie Cohen |
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By Jared Zwerling, Special to SI.com
Tennis star Julia Cohen has certainly benefited from diverse competition against her contemporaries on the global stage, but the 18-year-old still knows that home is where the real competition begins.
Literally born into the game as a baby, Cohen has never had to look far for help in honing her skills. Her father, Richard, is a former nationally-ranked junior; her mother, Nancy, played in college; and her older brother, Josh, was just named an All-American at the University of Miami. So, who would win a family doubles match?
"Me and my dad have the edge," said Cohen, 18, a recent graduate of Laurel Springs High (Weston, Fla.).
Julia's me-first and forthright attitude about tennis is nothing new to her family. Richard first introduced her to the sport at three years old; soon she was side-by-side with Josh whenever he played. When Julia was around eight years old, she begged to play tennis and told Richard she wanted the best coaching he could find because her dream was to become a professional tennis player.
"Anything I do I try to do my best in," said Cohen. "From a young age, I was very focused on tennis. I remember when I was eight playing in tournaments around Philadelphia, I played in the 12s, 14s and the 16s in the same weekend and I won all three events. I really liked to win, so I was like, 'If I can win, I want to keep playing.'"
At age nine, Julia got handed a trophy that was nearly as big as her at the time for winning her first major tournament, the nine-and-under Little Mo National Championships in San Diego. From that moment on, Julia jumped quickly up the USTA rankings to No. 1 in several older age groups. By age 14, she was one of the top 15 junior players in the world.
Today, the 5-foot-8 right-hander with standout speed and a world-class backhand is ranked fourth in the International Tennis Federation Juniors' field (she's the top American). This past January in Barcelona, Julia won the Copa Casablanca, one of the biggest junior tournaments in the world, for an event-record third straight time.
Unfortunately, she suffered a tear in her ankle a few months ago, but for Julia it was a rare chance to enjoy being a normal teenager and hang out more with her brother who once flew 30 hours from Australia to Peru just to watch her play a single match. The injury also made her realize there's more to life than tennis, including the plan that if she doesn't reach her goal of cracking the top 75 on the WTA leaderboard this year, she plans on committing to one of the 250 colleges that contacted her to major in marine biology.
Through a faster-than-expected rehabilitation, she is now working three times a day with her coach, Pablo Arraya, a previous top-30 pro, on strengthening her serve, hitting volleys away, better movement and faster reaction time.
She has a busy summer coming up competing in several WTA tournaments -- including the U.S. Open Series -- and tag-teaming with Nancy and Richard in the mother-daughter and father-daughter nationals, respectively. "What impresses me the most is her love for the game. She is willing to try harder every day," said Arraya. "She is a player with lots of potential, smarts and a big heart."
How big is her heart?
"To beat anybody ranked above me," Cohen shot back smashingly.
