From a No. 1 ranking in Turkey to Columbia tennis

Ekin Sezgen is a player mature beyond his years.

If you listen to Sezgen, a rising star on the men’s tennis team, explain his story, you will soon realize that his success on the court stems neither from his prowess with a racket, nor from his tactical skills. Rather, Sezgen’s maturity is the foundation of his game on and off the court.

“I learned life lessons,” Sezgen said, about what tennis has taught him. “Tennis is life. It has everything. It has risk-taking, responsibility, decisions at critical times. It’s a way of going to different places and cultures.”

Sezgen, a freshmen originally from Turkey, began playing tennis at a young age, despite that fact that tennis is overshadowed by soccer in Turkey.

“My parents first got me into tennis,” Sezgen said. “They were not good players but they just loved to play. It was my parents’ influence that provoked me to play.”

At first Sezgen resented the sport, but after a year of watching his parents play, he began to play tennis at a local club.
“When I was 10, I started playing with a coach,” Sezgen said, “and he told my parents that I was talented and they sent me to a more professional tennis club.”

For Sezgen, it was a tough at first since the club was located on the European side of Turkey, while he lived in the Asian side.
“They hesitated to send me at first,” Sezgen continued. “It was a long distance and I was small, but I started going there six days a week.”
Sezgen’s professionalism was evident at an early age, when he describes why he chose the sport of tennis over soccer, in the soccer-mad nation of Turkey.

Once he committed to tennis, Sezgen began to excel. As a junior, Sezgen was ranked as high as 592 worldwide, and he won an international tournament, beating players ranked in the low 100s. Additionally, Sezgen was the No. 1 junior in Turkey, and played No. 1 singles on the national team.

“I represented my home country in a sport that is not very popular,” Sezgen said, “I wanted to gain attention and increase attention in tennis. It was a really good experience, I went to different countries and saw the Turkish flag going upward, and the national march playing. I am proud of myself and my country in a way that I can show myself.”

Despite his success on the international circuit, Sezgen had set his sights on college tennis, rather than going professional.
“There is a crucial line between education and turning pro in any sport,” Sezgen said, displaying a maturity beyond his years. “You have to have courage to cross that line and I couldn’t cross it.”

When asked why they came to Columbia, most student athletes respond by talking about the school’s combination of academics and athletics. Both of these affected Sezgen’s choice, but Sezgen also listed one additional factor.

“I came for a summer session here two years ago,” Sezgen said, “and I played here and I talked to [head coach] Bid [Goswami] and some of the other guys who graduated and they gave me information on the school and the tennis team. I knew that I was going to spend every day with those guys, and it was a really important factor for me.”

When Sezgen first arrived on campus, he was the only recruit whose game Goswami had not seen yet. Sezgen worked hard during the first few weeks of practice and his work began paying dividends immediately. In his first collegiate match, Sezgen beat Jeremy Feldman from Cornell, last season’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year. He finished a strong fall season, by advancing to the quarterfinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championships, defeating Harvard’s No. 5 player 6-0, 6-4.

“He has been a great addition,” Goswami said. “Sezgen did great in the fall and I know he will win some big matches for us in the future. Sezgen is real mature for his age both on and off the courts—a real champ.”

Sezgen continued his strong play this spring, playing at the highest singles position of any freshmen on the team. He endured a tough loss against Harvard at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, where he was unable to convert championship points that would have given Columbia the title. Yet true to his characteristic wisdom, Sezgen turned that defeat into a lesson for the whole team.

“I believe everything happens for a reason,” Sezgen said. “Our team was really confident. ... We thought we had the best team Columbia ever had, we were a little cocky. The loss was a wake up call for us, I think I made the team realize we had to work more.”
Despite the loss, Sezgen managed to keep a positive outlook on both this season and his tennis future.