Fernando Araujo '16 Recruiting Profile

I'm a citizen of the United States, but I've lived outside the US for most of my life (Egypt, Argentina, Canada). I've always attended private international schools, which makes my academic base very strong (Cairo American School, Lincoln American School of Buenos Aires, Rundle College). My current school, Rundle College, is the #1 ranked academic high school in the province of Alberta, Canada.

I started playing competitive tennis in Argentina, which has one of the strongest junior tennis programs in the world. In Buenos Aires, I trained in a high performance academy for six years, where I was lucky enough to play against top notch junior competition. During this time, I competed against players that have won important junior tournaments such as the Orange Bowl in Florida.

Due to my father's work, we moved to Calgary, Canada in my sophomore year. I'm currently ranked #1 in the province of Alberta U18 in the points race (equivalent to USTA state ranking). I'm also the reigning state U18 champion in singles and doubles. I qualified to play Canadian nationals, but I was not allowed to play because I'm not a Canadian citizen. I lost an opportunity to accumulate significant points to improve my National ranking.

I have attended several tennis academies over the last five summers, including the Bruguera Academy in Barcelona (trained with Garbine Muguruza, top 20 in in the world). I also trained in the Weil Academy in California, and plan to do so again this summer. I grew up playing in clay courts, my favorite surface, but I've adapted well to hard courts in Canada.

I always wanted to attend university and play college tennis in the US, my home country. I believe I can fit in well in just about any university; I've adapted and embraced living in different countries and that has given me a special strength of character. The fact that I've traveled to over 40 countries around the world, makes me appreciate different views, personalities and situations, which can only help when coming into a new institution.