Halina Nguyen was eight years old when her mother first drove her from Fields Corner over to Blue Hill Avenue’s Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center (STEC) for a Friday night clinic known as Volley Against Violence. Inside, everything was new and unknown, and coaches told Nguyen to stand on the baseline of the tennis court.

“It was my first time even holding my racquet,” said Nguyen, a 16-year-old sophomore at Boston Latin School (BLS). “I remember the coaches told us to stand on the baseline and I didn’t even know what the baseline was. I was really scared. Everyone here was so experienced and I felt like I was the only one that didn’t know anything.”

STEC has since become a second home to Nguyen, who has risen to be one of the best high school players in the state and among the most promising young tennis talents in New England. She has played first singles for the last two years on the top ranked BLS girls’ team that includes her sister, Lilian, and other friends from STEC as well.

Looking back on those first days, she said, makes her glad that her mother and father – Hai and Linh – encouraged her to play the game, even if it has become the game she loves to hate.

“I feel like I really like tennis no matter what I say when I’m really mad at tennis,” she said with a laugh. “I feel a lot of people can relate to being frustrated with how they play, but still really like the sport. With a sport like this, I’ve devoted so much time to it, it has become part of who I am.”

Halina Nguyen practices up to eight hours a week during the spring sports season with BLS and STEC coaches. while also participating in USTA tournaments on the weekends. She said it’s a lot, but the drive to win is her inner motivation.
Seth Daniel photos

Two of her coaches at STEC, Marton Balla and Harshana Godamanna, have been working with Nguyen since the beginning and she said she is still learning from them daily. Balla said he admires how Halina balances a rigorous academic load at BLS, where her interests are math and science, and a high-level commitment to tennis. He said that balance has formed an intensity that plays out on the court, even during practices.

“Halina can get intense on the court, but she also has a great sense of humor,” he said. “It is so much evident when Halina, her two sisters, and their tennis friends practice on their own next to the court that I’m teaching on. They compete hard and they comment on each other even harder. Sometimes it’s impossible not to watch the intense rallies or to tune out the funny comments to one another. I hope one day when she thinks back to her teenage years, she’ll remember those practices and smile.”

Nguyen attended Neighborhood House Charter School until the fifth grade, then spent a year at the Murphy School before landing at BLS. She said her parents have devoted a great deal of time and money to her tennis pursuits over the years – sometimes driving to United States Tennis Association (USTA) tournaments that are four hours away and staying all day.

“I could be there for hours – sometimes eight or nine hours in a day. It’s a lot,” she said. “But I still remember the first tournament I won with the USTA playing ‘green ball.’ I really loved the feeling of winning, and that feeling is still my inner drive to get better and keep winning.”

While in spring sports season with BLS, Nguyen can spend up to eight hours practicing per week for her high school, and then playing in the evening at STEC, and competing at tournaments around the region on the weekends. That devotion has paid off in that BLS has been one of the best teams in Division 1 girls’ tennis behind Nguyen the past two years.

Last year, they went undefeated and finished at the top of the state power rankings – only to lose a heartbreaker in the semi-finals of the state tournament. They hope to avenge that loss this year.

Outside of high school competitions, Nguyen was chosen this past December by STEC to play in their second college showcase – where she competed alongside some of the best high school and college players from New England and Washington, D.C., as college coaches looked on. It was a rare opportunity, but one that she took full advantage of, Nguyen said.

“I think I played really well in the showcase,” she said. “I got a lot of sleep and felt really fresh and energetic. There were so many people watching and so I loved the adrenaline jolt, and it was a thrilling event.”

While still too young to be contacted directly by college coaches, she said she got plenty of affirmation when the coaches talked to her parents. “It was very nice to get that kind of attention. It lets me know I’m on the right path to be able to play college tennis,” she said.

But of all the opponents she’s played over the years, her most worthy adversary has been her father. A recreational tennis player with a good serve and strong volley, Linh Nguyen said he was the one who helped her hone her game and sharpen her mental focus.

“Every time we played, he would ask me if I thought I could beat him and I said I could, and then he’d beat me and I’d go really crazy,” his daughter recalled with a laugh. “I watched him play and he looked so easy to beat but wasn’t. I had better technique, but he had so much more experience. It always felt like I was one point away and then he would win, make fun of me, and make the loss ten times worse.”

Now, when she’s on the court and facing down a challenge, she said she thinks of those matches with her father on the courts in Dorchester. “He definitely helped me with my mental game,” she noted. “I still get frustrated a lot playing others, but after playing my dad, it can’t get much worse.”