Meet Annika Renganathan, daughter of Venky Renganathan and Asha Narayanan. She is a 13-year-old from Sammamish, Washington and is already one of the best young tennis players in the country.
Annika is currently the #1 ranked player in the Pacific Northwest for her age group, and the #8 ranked player in the U.S. Annika has already experienced her share of success at a young age, including a gold in girls doubles at the National Winter Championship and earning herself 4th place in the prestigious national Easter Bowl tournament.
Venky, an avid tennis player himself, first introduced the sport to his daughter when she was 6 years old, and she surprised him with her abilities. “She hit the ball back so hard. I was amazed at her aggressiveness, coordination, and footwork. These are her biggest strengths.” Annika says of her strengths, “I always learned to take control of points and attack. I’m also good at staying calm and not showing negative emotion. I try not to let bad things affect me and to just move on to the next point.”
However, tennis isn’t everything for Annika. Annika plays the piano and has performed twice in recitals at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City. As far as academics go, Annika is successful as well. For the past 5 years she’s been in Quest, a program for gifted students.
She maintains great grades because of her extremely high expectations of herself and her motivation to do better at everything. Additionally, she participates in several after school clubs such as math club, where she successfully competes statewide, adding trophies to her collection.
“Even with all of this, I’ve always told Annika that she should find a balance between doing her work and being a kid,” says her mom Asha. Despite her accomplishments, Annika is just a normal 7th grader. She goes to school, hangs out with friends, does homework, plays games on her phone, etc. “According to me, I’m not that different from everyone else. Everyone is good at their own things, and I guess I’m good at some stuff. I try not to think about results or what happens too much. My goal is just to be happy and enjoy everything I do,” says Annika.