{"id":424299,"date":"2025-12-04T14:51:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/424299\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T14:51:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:51:18","slug":"im-playing-because-i-feel-joy-at-40-sarah-pang-looks-to-return-to-professional-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/424299\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m playing because I feel joy\u2019: At 40, Sarah Pang looks to return to professional tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

After graduating from the National University of Singapore with an English literature degree, she began pursuing tennis full-time in 2014.<\/p>\n

She worked three jobs and took out loans to pay for a training stint at Barcelona\u2019s Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy, where she worked as a dormitory warden.<\/p>\n

In her mid-20s at that point, she stuck out among the other students who were mostly aged 12 to 16. She described this chapter of her life as \u201cvery unique\u201d and a \u201crare privilege\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just knew that I was there to play, and I was there to try and become as much of a player as I could be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fall into this trap of comparison so much in Singapore, because I think that’s the way we’ve been taught to survive, and also the way we’ve been taught to function and engage our worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGO AND CHASE YOUR DREAM\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, Pang reached one of the lowest points in her life \u2013 she had only S$1.87 (US$1.44) in her bank account<\/a>, meaning she had to cut her season short.<\/p>\n

Raising funds to travel and compete, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, was tough for her, given that it is not in Singapore\u2019s social culture to ask for support, she said.<\/p>\n

She recounted her anxiety over showing a fundraising campaign video to a security guard at the building she worked at. He then took out S$10 from his wallet and handed the bill to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said: \u2018Girl, go and chase your dream.\u2019 It\u2019s moments like this that \u2026 just made me realise, wow, it\u2019s so deeply humbling,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I step on court, I step on court for the pride of my flag and my colours, and I step on court for everyone who has donated, supported the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

INTERNAL GROWTH<\/p>\n

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Pang said she was grateful for how it forced her to grow.<\/p>\n

The world ground to a halt \u2013 including international tennis tournaments \u2013 just a year after she made the WTA rankings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile COVID reset all of that work, (it) also forced perspectives of internal growth that, had I stayed on that hamster wheel, I don’t think I would have had the chance to uncover,\u201d she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

She added that she has a message for her future self: That the best and deepest way of service to her community is to have the courage to live authentically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After graduating from the National University of Singapore with an English literature degree, she began pursuing tennis full-time…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":424300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-424299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115661864059976913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}