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Saddlebrook's Nze Ready To Take Next Step
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Published: July 14, 2007
Ellah Nze's tennis career can be measured in miles, stamps on her passport and trophies.
Soon her life will be weighty textbooks, college towns and long walks to class. But she will still carry her racket.
Nze (pronounced EN-zee), part of Saddlebrook's class of 2007, is off to Duke University on a tennis scholarship. She plans to continue to build on her No. 488 international ranking on the pro tennis circuit and to study pre-med.
She will try to find the balance between playing international tennis and building the foundation of a college education that few are able to achieve.
'I want to play professionally for two years,' Nze said. 'I don't want to stay out there forever and become a coach. Then I want to go to on to medical school.'
The 18-year-old Nze began her tennis career emulating her older brother Amadi, who now works in New York. Her talent was evident from the age of 4, and she eventually ended up at a tennis academy in College Park, Md., 50 miles from the Nze family's home in Baltimore.
Every day, her mother, Rochella, would drive Ellah to school, drive back to Baltimore for her job as a nurse and make the trip again when school was out for the day.
Meanwhile, Ellah was outgrowing her competition, becoming the area's top player in the 12, 14 and 16 age divisions and the third-best in the 18-year-olds by the time she was 12.
'We had to do something,' Rochella Nze said.
Rochella decided to leave her job and move with Ellah to Florida to help her pursue her tennis dreams. Meanwhile, Ellah's father, Raymond, stayed in Baltimore, where he worked as a physician.
Before attending Saddlebrook, Ellah went to a tennis academy in Delray Beach while she continued her education online.
While playing the junior international circuit, Ellah traveled to exotic cities to play in tournaments, and she found Internet cafes in places like the Czech Republic, Thailand and Austria so she could get her homework done.
After playing in the junior Grand Slams at Wimbledon, the Australian Open, the French Open and the U.S. Open, Ellah changed schools.
'The deal was, it was time for her to go to a brick and mortar, because when you go to college, you can't just go online, you have to be with other kids,' Rochella Nze said. 'So then we moved to Saddlebrook.'
Even when Ellah was traveling the world, moving up the ranks on the junior international circuit and enjoying all that each new culture had to offer - from posing for photos in front of centuries-old landmarks to getting her fallen sandal handed to her by an elephant she was riding to dining next to tennis star Lindsay Davenport - college was always part of her plan.
Once at Saddlebrook, Ellah continued to train and play in tournaments, and she won two futures tournaments.
At the U.S. Hardcourt Tournament in Dallas, she was scouted by representatives from Stanford and Duke and was told by an assistant Blue Devils coach that she could continue to play in tournaments while she attended college and played for the college team as long as she didn't accept prize money.
Shortly after a visit to campus, Ellah committed to Duke. She also visited Miami, Southern California and Stanford.
She will pursue her education as ardently as she does her tennis, and where she ends up is completely up to her.
'I didn't really know anything about international tennis before,' Ellah said. 'I used to watch the U.S. Open on TV and think, 'How do you get there?' I had no idea before I came to Florida.'
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