Know Your Neighbor: Rachel Lim, Student/Tennis Player, Briarcliff Manor

Rachel Lim will be heading next week to the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows like a lot of other tennis enthusiasts.

While most will be there for the start of the U.S. Open, one of the sport’s most anticipated tournaments of the year, Lim’s first priority will be for something else. The 14-year-old incoming freshman at Briarcliff High School will be part of a group of 30 budding tennis stars that will be recognized at the United States Tennis Association’s (USTA) Eastern Junior Awards Gala on Monday morning.

The ceremony honors players such as Lim in the Eastern region, one of the USTA’s 17 areas throughout the country, for outstanding play throughout the past year. She is ranked first in the 14s and 16s division in the region and is just one of four players to reach a top three ranking in two age categories.

“To be honored there just makes it so much more special, that it’s at the U.S. Open,” Lim said.

Aside from being a world famous tennis venue, what also makes it special for Lim is that she’s no stranger to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Since she was nine years old and was accepted into the center’s training program, Lim has been traveling to Flushing about four days a week for three-hour training sessions after school.

But Lim said it has become almost second nature for her to be able to juggle her hectic school and practice schedules, doing it with the same disciplined business-like approach that has helped her to rack up victories with increasing frequency.

“When I step on the court I’m all business,” Lim said. “Nothing else matters to me, just me and my tennis.”

Lim first started playing when she was five years old, introduced to the sport by her tennis-loving parents. While her mom and dad have been recreational players, they began teaching Rachel and her sister, Rebecca, who is two years younger.

Her competitiveness and the joy she has derived from playing began to take off about two years later when her parents began entering her in local tournaments.

After appearing in her first national tournament at eight years old, one of her first tastes of success came in 2009 when she qualified for Nationals in the Little Mo Tournament. Another breakthrough came in April 2012, just shy of her 12th birthday, when Lim captured the  Longines Future Tennis Aces Tournament, which earned her a trip to France during the French Open along with about 15 other finalists from around the world.

Lim’s winning ways have continued into 2014 and with even greater regularity. In the spring, she won the Easter Bowl, the USTA National Spring Tournament in Indian Wells, Calif. In the 16s, Lim, a lefthander, won the Eastern Super Six Section Championships in June in New Jersey. She had also started off the year winning an Eastern Super Six that took place on Long Island.

Playing older opponents hasn’t seemed to faze Lim, who has made the transition to the next age category with relative ease. She said she plays her game despite the improved competition.

“Moving up to 16s, the girls are bigger, they’re stronger, they’re faster on the court,” she explained. “But I make sure that I don’t prepare any differently.”

She recently competed at the World Junior Tennis Championships in Prostejov, Czech Republic, where the girls’ team finished fifth. Individually, Lim was strong, winning four of the five singles matches she played. Since Jan. 1, her overall record stands at 59-11.

Lim admires and enjoys watching some of the world’s top players–Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal on the men’s side and Maria Sharapova for the women. Another player Lim said she looks up to is Petra Kvitova, also a lefty.

“I really look up to (Kvitova) because of her personality and her game,” Lim said. “She is a lefty just like me and I would love to model my game after hers, by playing aggressive and powerful ground strokes.”

With her frequent travel, Lim hasn’t had time to play in school, although she would love to represent Briarcliff High School. She’s also eyeing the possibility of a pro career. Despite the long hours she’s put in so far and the work that still needs to be done to realize her dream, Lim said she enjoys herself on the court.

“I just really think that tennis is so much fun,” she said.