TENNIS : Wu walks onto Syracuse, rekindles passion for game in intense atmosphere
Jimena Wu came to Syracuse unsure of her future in tennis.
She had heard SU head coach Luke Jensen only recruited American players. Coming from Peru, she didn’t know if she wanted to try out for the team. After her mother told her she had nothing to lose, though, Wu gave Jensen a call and was told to come to Drumlins Tennis Center.
There she met her soon-to-be coaches for the first time.
But in tryouts, Wu’s timing was off and her ball control was poor in just her third time playing indoors.
‘I just thought like, ‘There’s no way I’m getting in,” Wu said.
Yet Jensen and his assistant, Shelley George, saw potential in Wu and asked her to join the Orange. It was not the first time Wu questioned her tennis career. She initially gave up on her professional ambitions at 14. When she was 17, after an unsuccessful two-month tour of the South American junior circuit, she temporarily quit the game. Each time she grew restless and rediscovered her love of the game with the support of her family.
At Syracuse, she wrestled with the idea of becoming a pro player — Jensen does not recruit players who are not training to turn pro — before being revitalized by her Syracuse teammates. As a freshman walk-on, she has played in one match for the Orange (3-3, 2-1 Big East), losing against South Florida in the No. 6 singles match.
Wu is the first international player Jensen has brought into the program, and she has been pushed so far.
‘They’re so intense it kinda helped me pick up my pace,’ Wu said.
Wu began playing tennis as an after-school activity when she was 4 years old, playing for about an hour each day at Los Inkas Golf Club in Lima, Peru. Wu’s first coach told her mother after Wu’s first day of practice that she would become a very good player.
She won all of her club’s tournaments and started competing nationally by age 9.
Traveling around South America with her mother, Wu climbed up the South American junior rankings, rising as high as No. 7 on the Under-16 tour.
Wu met Catalina Castaño, then-ranked in the top 50 on the women’s tour, when she was 14. Castaño lived with Wu and her family, sharing her experiences from the world tour.
When Castaño told Wu she barely had time to go home for Christmas, Wu began to question going pro.
‘The main reason was because I’m a very family-type of person,’ Wu said. ‘ … I could not imagine myself being away from home that long.’
Wu was also unhappy playing tennis. She said she did not know how to learn from her mistakes. As a result, she lost a lot and grew frustrated.
Her mother, Karen Crousillat, noticed the same problem.
‘She would not allow herself a single error and could even lose several points while thinking in that mistake,’ Crousillat said in an email.
She learned from that period and now tries to let go of her frustration in a positive way. In her tryout for the Orange, Wu laughed at some of her mistakes. She tried to have fun and it worked.
And now, the daily intensity of the team has her refocused on tennis. Once again, there is pressure, but it is good pressure, Wu said. Her Orange teammates have been key in Wu’s return to competitive tennis.
‘I feel like in a way I have company now,’ Wu said.
The team has been equally receptive. She frequently jokes in Spanish with senior Alessondra Parra. Although Parra is half-Mexican, her Spanish is not as good as Wu’s. This often results in Wu making fun of a confused Parra in Spanish.
‘Everyone on this team absolutely adores her,’ Parra said.
Wu lost to Lucie Rey of No. 45 South Florida in three sets. She has yet to start for the Orange since that match. But she’s regained her passion for the sport as a part of the program.
‘Jimena was honestly just enrolled in school here and wanted to try out for the team,’ Jensen said. ‘(She) didn’t know about our directive about using the program and the college pathway to get to the pros.’
When Wu first joined the team she was not sure she wanted to turn pro. Jensen does not recruit players without pro ambitions. But Wu said Jensen appreciated her honesty about going pro when she was asked to join the team.
Said Wu about going pro: ‘I’m getting there.’
