USD Magazine, Spring 2000

Ir is rhar nonchalant arrirude rhar makes a college tennis coach want to hug her star play– er and shake her at the same rime. "Zuzana is an amazing person," says Coach Sherri Stephens, who has spent more than three years with her as both coach and friend. "She is a very worldly person. She loves culrure, arr, history. She is a good srudenr. No question she

early as her freshman year at USO, when she began mowing down opponents with her booming forehand and precise ball placement. They became deafening when she rook the court last summer at the U.S. Open, drawing a wildcard berth due to her national ride. By joining rhe United Stares Tennis Association pro tour she could have walked away with $15,000 from the New York tour– nament, much like 18-year-old San Diego high school star Alexandra Stephenson did earlier at Wimbledon. But Lesenarova had something else in mind. "A television reporter was interviewing her, and he asked her what her goal was chis year," says Stephens, who accompanied Lesenarova to rhe Open. "She told him 'ro graduate,' and the reporter just laughed. And Zuzana told him she was serious." She is. A college education is the current pri– ori ry for the 22-year-old, whose life has more moving parts than a Swiss Army knife. She car– ries a full load of classes for her communica– tions major and business minor, in which she has a 3.2 GPA. T here's a part-rime campus job. An internship at the local NBC affiliate, where she just got done helping cover Tiger Woods in the Buick Invitational. Going dancing at Pacific

Her mood is as bright as the sun, and she talks about everything under ir - friends (she has dozens rather than one best friend), her hometown ("ir's small and dead and people gos– sip"), relationships ("I seem to have a taste for people who aren't the perfect march for me") - and, oh yes, tennis, although it's nor something she likes to talk a lot about. Tennis is just one of

has the ralent ro play. The real question is, she is so worldly, and she likes so many rhings, will she jump into tennis with both feet? " Lesenarova may prefer to down– play tennis in her life, bur the col– legiate tennis world makes sure she can't gloss over ir: She was last year's NCAA National Si ngles Champion, giving USO its first Division I championship in any

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he only senior on the tennis team, she doesn't consider herself a leader, but just one of the gang. If she finishes a match early, she checks the team's overall score and roots on her teammates.

rhe things she does. Ir does nor, she wants you to know, define her. "There are rimes I'm frustrated when I'm nor playing well," she says in accented bur perfect English, "because I think I rake things a lot more personally. Ir rakes some rime, you know, when I lose and I shouldn't, bur it always ends up being OK. Ir's tennis, it's nor like I'm having serio us problems in my life."

sport; she holds five Intercollegiate Tennis Association Grand Slam singles rides, the most of any arhlere in history; she was the 1999 ITAi Tennis Magazine National Player of the Year; and she was named the 1999 Amateur Ath lete of the Year by the San Diego Hall of Champions, the first woman to earn rhe honor since 1978. The whispers in her ear to rum pro began as

Sharing Lesenarova's NCAA singles championship win last May is (from left) doubles partner Katarina Valkyova, Coach Sherri Stephens and former assistant coach Jun Hernandez.