19 year old Naga tennis sensation Lenien Jamir plans to leave for the United States after bagging a prestigious athletic scholarship at Monmouth University.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and is going to be a whole new chapter for me. I don’t remember my life before tennis. I have been balancing my studies as well,” Lenien Jamir told ThePrint.
She hails from Mokokchung district and will become the first-ever tennis player from Nagaland to join the US collegiate tennis circuit.
Lenien developed an early love for tennis. Ever since she could hold a tennis racquet she started showing keen interest in the sport. She was barely six-year-old when she started playing the sport for the first time.
Luckily, she also found support from her family, as they decided to give wings to her dreams by moving to Guwahati, Assam, to ensure that their ward gets the best facility.
She has won over 20 All India Tennis Association (AITA) domestic singles titles so far apart from numerous championships in other Asian as well as African nations.
Through the prestigious athletic scholarship at Monmouth University in the United States, Jamir will join as an undergraduate student to pursue her majors in International Relations in the New Jersey-based university’s Honors School.
She will represent the University’s women’s tennis team at the collegiate level tournaments.
It must be noted that famous names like John Isner, Kevin Anderson and Tennys Sandgren have all played collegiate tennis in the US before turning professional.
She will set off for the US on January 7, 2021.