Aslina wins tennis scholarship at Michigan State

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Aslina Chua in action during the women’s singles tennis competition at Sukma XVIII in Perlis in June this year. — Photo by Chai Chang Yu

KUCHING: Sukma women’s singles gold medalist Aslina Chua An Ping is the latest tennis player from Sarawak to be accepted to study at an American university on a full tennis scholarship.

She has been offered a scholarship for a 4 to 5 year course at Michigan State University. Her application had received strong recommendations from the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) and Romanian coach Doru Murariu, whom she had trained with for six months at Tennis Players Fitness Academy in Florida in the US.

According to SLTA president Dato Patrick Liew, about 40 tennis players from Sarawak have completed or are undergoing further studies on tennis scholarships offered by American and Australia universities.

“Tennis provides opportunities to our top players especially those who have competed in Sukma or ITF Junior competitions to further their studies overseas. If they are unable to turn professionals, at least they can obtain academic qualifications for them to secure better jobs,” he said yesterday.

“In years to come, we are expecting more players especially from Kuching to further their studies overseas under tennis scholarships,” added Liew.

They include Alvin Teng, Rohaizat Achop and Belinda Liong.

Meanwhile, Aslina expressed her gratitude to SLTA and Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia for their continuous support and assistance in securing the scholarship.

The 18-year-old player said she will take up a pre-medical programme from the middle of this month.

Eldest of three siblings, Aslina said she will be doing part-time study and part-time tennis while in the US.

“During the summer, I might be playing in some Women’s Futures and I shall be playing in inter-university tennis competitions too,” she said.

Apart from that, Aslina said she is ready to play for SLTA in Sukma 2016 and Fed Cup for LTAM if the need arises.

Aslina started playing tennis at the age of six until she was nine when she followed her father to Dubai.  She resumed playing tennis at 13 and was a trainee of the SLTA junior development programme under coaches like Ronald Martin and Oliver Riveira.

In August last year, she was sent to train under Murariu after which she returned to play for Sarawak in this year’s Sukma when she won the women’s singles gold, women’s team silver and mixed doubles silver to help the Sarawak contingent finish as the overall champions in tennis.

“I am glad to be part of the team that won the Sukma 2014 tennis overall champions title.”

“I have also played in the Fed Cup, some Futures and ITF Junior events. I got my first WTA point from the Turkey Women’s Futures US$10,000 and last year I earned two points.

“Being the Sukma champion in my debut was one of the highlights in my tennis career while another achievement was winning the BMW Masters, ranked 500 in ITF and clinching professional WTA points,” she said.

While Aslina enjoyed playing tennis, it could be quite frustrating at times when she had worked so hard and put in so much efforts but failed to get the results that she wanted.

“But I do believe that if you continue to work hard and have confidence and belief in yourself, the results will come.”

She is also hoping to see more local players working hard and producing good results, thus sustaining Sarawak’s strong tradition in tennis.