8 SportsUnion | NOVEMBER 2, 2018
Photos Provided By:
Fredonia State College
College
Tennis
You hear all the a time about how someone is a tennis prodi-
gy. They have been playing the sport since the age of 3. They have
been to numerous camps and tournaments by the time they are 10
years old. Tennis becomes their entire life.
By Matt Ondesko Managing Editor
But, you don’t have to be a
prodigy to be able to play the
game at the top level. In fact,
there are young men and
women who have picked up
the game “later” in life and
done very well.
When you look at Fredonia
State College’s Anna Chiac-
chia the first thing that you
see is an athlete. She was a
two sport star excelling both
on the tennis and basketball
courts for the Hamburg Bull-
dogs.
Basketball has always been
the first love for Chiacchia,
but during her junior tennis
was creeping up and some-
thing the just didn’t want to
do for fun. Chiacchia was al-
ways good, but never played
more for fun. She did it to
keep in shape for the hoops
season.
That all changed, however,
as the game she played for
fun turned into something
she started to love. She took
the game seriously. Instead of
Holding
serve
just using her athletic ability,
she started to construct more
points on the court - keeping
the opposing players off bal-
ance.
“Most my life my main fo-
cus had always been basket-
ball and tennis was always
something I just did for fun. It
wasn’t until my junior year of
high school that I started to re-
alize I am pretty decent at ten-
nis and I really loved the sport.
So compared to most players
I end up playing, I was very
late on when I started taking
the sport seriously and really
trying to be a tennis player, so
I found with most my com-
petitors the way to beat them
was by outlasting them be-
cause although most my com-
petitors are better than me
skill wise,” stated Chiacchia.
“I usually was more athletic
than them and relied on that
to just track down every ball
they hit and wear them out
until they messed up. It is not
until recently that I started
to be more aggressive and is
still something I am working
on, and every year I can feel
my tennis skill level get bet-
ter and better and sometimes
I wish I took tennis more se-
riously earlier in life but that
is out of my control and no
matter what I am going to just
continue enjoying the game.”
Taking the game serious
later in life has Chiacchia be-
hind the eight-ball just a little.
The skills that she is lacking
is made up by the athleticism
that she posses. She is able to
wear down the opposing play-
ers by staying in points lon-
ger.
She is able to frustrate play-
ers by getting shots backs and
making the opposing play-
ers go for too much. But she
is also working on her game.
She continues to strive to get
better at all aspects of her
game.
Where the biggest improve-
ment in her game has come is
her serve. Tennis has turned
into a big server game now -
not like in the past. If you are
able to get free points on your
serve is makes life a lot easier.
“Having a great serve can be
the real difference maker in a
match. I have developed a fair-
ly decent serve that I can ace
even my toughest competitors
a good amount of times in the
match, but it also requires put-
ting a lot into it which causes
me a lot of shoulder problems
throughout the season that I
have to deal with. So, usually
by the end of season I am not
even serving in practice for
the last few weeks to save my