Senior Yuanye Ma, inspired by the way his dad played tennis in college, has taken the sport to new heights by committing to play Division III tennis at Washington University in St. Louis.
Ma picked up a racket for the first time at age seven. However, growing up, tennis wasn’t Ma’s only sport. He also played soccer, swam and dedicated time to baseball before deciding to focus solely on tennis in middle school, realizing he wouldn’t have enough time to balance academics with multiple sports. “For me, I think tennis was just the most fun,” Ma said.
The sport quickly took up the majority of his time, and Ma started the recruitment process around his junior year, looking into several DIII schools. For Ma and his family, academics were always a priority when choosing a school.
“That’s why DIII made sense,” he said. “Some DI programs practice five hours a day, and that was just way too much for me.”
He explored several other schools, including Tufts and Swarthmore, but WashU quickly emerged as his top choice after visiting during spring break. “On the visit, I got to meet the team, and I just really liked the environment there,” Ma said.
For Ma, playing on the Menlo tennis team each season is the highlight of his year. One teammate who made a significant impact on him was Cooper Han ‘25, who graduated last year and is now playing tennis at Northwestern University.
After playing together on the boys varsity tennis team for three years, they built a close bond with each other. “He really pushed me to be better every day,”
Ma said.
He also credits Menlo’s tennis coach, Francis Sargeant, who joined the program last year. “He’s taught us a lot of really important lessons about tennis and even beyond tennis,” Ma said.
This season, Ma will be stepping into a leadership role as a team captain. “I’m really excited to be a leader and hopefully get the team pretty far this year,” he said.
Ma has long been a stable force on the team according to his teamates. “Yuanye Ma is the type of player that holds a team together; not by being the loudest, or the most intimidating but by quietly setting an example and the standard that we look up to. His consistency makes everyone around him better,” senior tennis player Arki Temsamani said.
“I’m super happy for Yuanye because I know how hard he worked to get to such a great school and tennis program,” fellow teamate junior Surya DeDatta said.
Looking ahead to his time at WashU, Ma is eager to replicate the camaraderie that has meant so much to him at Menlo. “I’m most excited about the team culture,” he said. “Being able to hang out with the guys, compete together and hopefully win a national title.”
Through it all, Ma’s family — especially his mom — have been his biggest supporters. “[My mom] takes me to every tournament, especially during the summer,” he said. “We travel a lot, and it definitely gets tough, but she’s always been there.”
