Young Haitian-American Tennis Phenom Victoria Duval Takes off Her Shades

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: August 27, 2013

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When I first saw Vicky Duval play tennis in her first-round U.S. Open qualifying match last week, I was curious. Who was this young, Haitian-American 17-year-old with the sporty shades who was beating up on the No. 4 seed in the tournament, Teliana Pereira of Brazil?

Duval was fast around the court, and she pushed Pereira around with her attacking groundstrokes. I sensed that she was a real competitor.

When I sat down with Vicky Duval on Friday, I was surprised again. Tennis players are not always the most social bunch. Tennis is an inherently inward-looking game. There are no teammates (except in doubles), and there is little camaraderie compared to other sports.  

Yet along came Vicky, laughing and smiling, and I was instantly struck by her charm and gregariousness.

The first thing Vicky showed me was a little joke she had made on her iPhone about her challenging trigonometry class. I didn’t get the joke—which was precisely the point. Vicky explained, “basically the question makes no sense and the answer makes no sense.” Just like in trigonometry.

Vicky’s sweet, fun-loving demeanor may be attributed, in part, to her mother, Nadine Duval. Nadine is the antithesis of an overbearing tennis parent.

“I don’t know anything about grips, about strokes, or anything,” said Nadine in her rich French-Creole accent. “I don’t get involved in the tennis. I’m just the mom. And she [Vicky] likes it that way…My job is just to make sure that she does her schoolwork, she has enough sleep, she feeds herself properly and she’s a good girl.”  

Nadine’s eyes light up when she talks about Vicky and her two older sons, and she punctuates many of her sentences with infectious laughter. After watching Vicky and her interact for a few minutes, it was easy to see what a loving relationship they have, sprinkle...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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