Maya Smith is a 10 year old 5th grader from Madison, Mississippi. She currently competes in the Girls 12’s where she is ranked 8th in the state of Mississippi and 55th in the Southern Section*. Maya’s interest in tennis was sparked when she saw Venus Williams playing a match on television. She said, “It looked like a lot of fun and you get lots of money so I decided to play.”

“I listen to all of my coaches and do what they say the first time, so I can improve.”

To keep her game in peak form, Maya practices 5 days a week except on the weekends where tournaments take the main stage. When in town and not competing in sectional events, most Sunday’s Maya goes out to the tennis court but not to improve her game. She plays for fun with her family. COOL… Age : (Rank G10s)
State : MS
State Rank : 2
Sect'l Rank : 5 On the weekdays when she is training, she visits a variety of places throughout Mississippi for coaching and drill groups. For private lessons with her coach, Chris Wooten, she goes to Parnham Bridges Tennis Center, for drills she goes to River Hills Racquet Club and when she goes to hit with her hitting partners she goes to the Courthouse tennis facility. No matter where Maya is practicing she always gets the most out of her time.

Recently a coach at a high performance camp told Maya and her parents that she was one of the most coachable players he had ever worked with. Maya loves being able to take what coaches have told her and immediately implement it into her game. She says, “I listen to all of my coaches and do what they say the first time, so I can improve.” This is a great trait to have and a guaranteed way to advance your game at a rapid pace.

Maya recently competed in the Bullfrog USTA Southern Designated in Mobile, Alabama. In the tournament she won three matches and gained 270 points toward her sectional ranking.

When Maya plays in these big tournaments, she loves to start her day with eggs or an omelet. After she wins a match or has a great day on the court she loves to go out for buffalo wings. When Maya is not traveling to different clubs and tournaments, she loves to do things unrelated to tennis. Two of her favorite things to do are write stories and create different types of crafts.

Maya has experienced success at a young age. She says all of this success would not be possible without the help of others. In particular she would like to thank her father for all the help and advice he has given her over the years. Maya seems to follow in her parents' footsteps, her dad played basketball at the Air Force Academy and her mom played college softball. I bet they understand commitment.

Maya has set many goals when it comes to tennis but her biggest goal is to become the #1 tennis player in the world and be the best to ever live. She certainly has the work ethic to accomplish this goal and if she can continue to train extremely hard anything is possible. Maya would like to leave all her competition with the following, “I would like to say that I’ve not been playing this game long, but I’m getting really good, really fast. I’m catching up with everyone that has been playing the game since they were three. So, watch out, because I’m coming! “

* Ranking as of November 20th 2009