Sophomore tennis player Sanjeev Chundu has had a promising debut in his first year playing tennis for the Red and Blue.
Chundu, who originally grew up playing soccer in his early years, only decided to pick up tennis later after watching his sister play the sport. Motivated by his initial good results, he decided to focus his efforts on tennis, realizing he could get into college through the sport.
With that goal in mind, choosing to move across the country was not a hard choice for the Vegas native.
“I wanted a place where I could be challenged academically, have the best opportunities on and off the court,” Chundu said, reflecting on why he wanted to come to Penn. Although he began recruiting conversations with Penn late into the game, he quickly hit it off with men's tennis coach Rich Bongfiglio, landing Penn as one of his top choices.
While Chundu has had an impressive freshman campaign, the transition to collegiate sport can be challenging.
“The training schedule that I had back in Vegas was nothing like the one I had at Penn,” Chundu said. “Penn’s strict, a lot more structured, and it took some time for me to get used to it.”
However, Chundu has done well to adjust to the discipline that has to come with collegiate tennis and work through challenges along the way — including battling illness during his first semester. A regular schedule for him involves cardio or weightlifting from for an hour in the morning at the tennis center, followed by two hours of practice and 30 minutes of conditioning in the evenings. In sum, it leads to a four hour commitment every day. Chundu had a consistent first season, going 10-8 in singles and 11-11 in doubles through the course of the year.
“I won probably, every match I was expected to win, and lost every match I was expected to lose,” Chundu said.
In a sport that is generally individualistic, coming into a team environment can be a welcome change. Chundu "[values] the team" and accounts some of the consistency to the accountability that comes with being a part of a team.
One of his favorite memories from this season was the Eastern College Athletic Conference match against Yale, where Penn was down 2-3 before his match. Chundu managed to beat a previously unbeaten opponent, making tactical changes that culminated in him winning the match. Eventually, the team managed to beat Yale.
“It gave my teammate a change to clinch the match,” Chundu said. “Watching him take my efforts and pull through at the very end, I think that was something super special.”
Chundu has his sights set on improving in the next semester.
“My goals are to also be consistent, but be in a place where I can compete with some of the best players in the Ivy League,” Chundu said. He describes how he plans to use some of the resources available to him now — such as watching his matches back — to put into perspective how he can improve his game over the summer and get big wins over top players.
