By Darryl Nash
Riverside’s Jeselle Ante wants to be a tennis player when she grows up – and she knows that’s sooner than later. Ante has put together a solid run in the past year reaching the Woody Hunt 18’s semifinals and the quarters at Sectionals last summer before earning a spot in the main draw at the USTA Girls 16s/18s Nationals. She also recently won the UTR Girls 17U Junior Nationals in Las Vegas and will represent Team SoCal in the USTA L2 Intersectional Team Pacific Cup this month. Ante received the Henry Talbert Summer Tennis Scholarship Grant from the SCTA Foundation.
With high expectations and lofty goals, the 15-year old is the fourth sister in a family of tennis siblings. She remembers roaming onto the court as youngster, eager to join in the family fun. “I feel like I was born to play tennis,” Ante said between matches at the SoCal Open Sectionals in San Diego. “I’ve always felt at home with tennis.”
As her game grew more serious, Ante concedes that some of the fun was overshadowed by competing for points, ranking, college standing, and other external factors. Her goal more recently – during which she’s played spirited tennis – has been to rekindle her love and enjoyment of the sport.
She is inspired by her sister, Mariel Ante, who was a top player at Drake University from 2012 to 2016. Mariel is now a second year medical student at Georgetown University. The duo competed in the USTA Southern California Open Sectional Doubles this summer and enjoyed sharing time on the court. 
A decade after she first lifted a racket, Ante maintains her dream of becoming one of the few professional tennis player of Filipino lineage, a goal she will tackle in due time. Originally, she’d hoped to feed directly into the pro circuit a la Martina Hingis, but as Ante approaches college eligibility, the idea of playing collegiate ball has grown on her. “I’m planning to go to college, and choose colleges that maneuver me into pro tennis, just like other pros did.”
Ante’s recent streak of success, perhaps not surprisingly, comes on the heels of a difficult time in her life. At the height of the pandemic, Ante’s mother – a health care professional working the front line against COVID-19 – succumbed to the virus after a lengthy and courageous battle.
“My mom knew how to fight, and she taught me that,” Ante said. “In tennis, you have to be stubborn. You have to fight for yourself on the court.”
Despite the weight of her loss, Ante still presents a colorful, happy-go-lucky persona. Her pigtails and colorful attire help her stand out from the rest, and she understands that her ability to excel in tennis is directly related to how much she enjoys the game. “If you have fun doing what you’re doing,” she affirms, “you’re actually going to succeed.”
“I’m just so grateful for the people that I’ve met on the way,” she said, echoing her father’s sage advice. “Like my dad says, the people you meet on the way up are the people you will meet on the way down. You have to be humble, and you have to learn when to be stubborn.
“Like my mom,” she added, with pride.
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Karen Ronney contributed to this report.
ABOUT THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TENNIS ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION
Our mission of “Changing Lives and Communities through Tennis,” serves as a pathway to offer financial support to individuals and organizations. We are a 501©3 nonprofit organization and the charitable arm of USTA Southern California. We help people of all ages and abilities to improve their health, fitness and quality of life through the sport of tennis. Founded in 1986, the SCTA Foundation has had a community impact of giving more than $500,000 this year through grants, scholarships, program support, equipment and more to recipients throughout Southern California. To learn more about the SCTA Foundation, please visit sctafoundation.org. To donate CLICK HERE
