For the upcoming tennis season this spring Pepperdine will welcome freshman David Sofaer all the way from Sydney Australia. His passion for tennis began at the age of 4 and his journey to Pepperdine has taken him from Australia to Europe and all throughout the Americas.
At the age of 15 Sofaer moved from his home in Sydney to the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida so that he could continue to improve his game. The Academy served as a launching pad for him to play in many singles and doubles tournaments under the jurisdiction of the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
“It has been really interesting and exciting to get to play all around the world Sofaer said.
Playing matches in Europe, Central America and South America, Sofaer built up his world ranking to its highest of 63 in the 18 and under category.
Sofaer has two ITF singles titles and four ITF doubles titles to his name. He has also competed in juniors singles at Wimbledon in 2009. He advanced to the round of 16 in doubles while also competing in singles at main draw of the Australian Open Juniors.
Pepperdine took notice of Sofaer’s talent and recruited him to come here to play.
They scouted my results online and then they started emailing me since I guess they liked what they saw Sofaer said.
He came to Pepperdine for an official visit in 2009, and really liked the campus and tennis program.
I decided to come to Pepperdine because of the great coaches great team environment and great location Sofaer said. He chose Pepperdine over other schools such as Virginia and Texas which were also interested in acquiring his talents.
Although the regular tennis season begins in the spring, Sofaer and the rest of the team have been very busy with their pre-season training and workout regimen.
We have been training really hard every day Sofaer said.
Training consists of not only tennis practice, but also of weight lifting and conditioning drills.
In addition to practices, Sofaer and the Waves are competing in several preseason tournaments. The last tournament they played was the Las Vegas Invitational. Sofaer won all three of the singles matches that he played in Las Vegas, beating players from Kentucky, UNLV and Fresno. He started in the sixth, fifth, and fifth singles spots for the respective games. Although the tournament matches do not count for Pepperdine’s season record, the individual match results do count toward the records of the individual players. This means that Sofaer began his Pepperdine tennis career with a 3-0 start at the invitational.
The team’s next tournament is Oct. 1 in San Francisco, but according to Sofaer, the big tournament that he and the rest of the team are really looking forward to is the regionals in Irvine on Oct. 21. That is the big tournament.” Sofaer said “It will be really exciting to play in.”
So far Sofaer is definitely enjoying being part of the Pepperdine tennis team and cannot wait to begin the regular season in the spring.
“It’s a great team environment with lots of great guys and coaches Sofaer said. It is making preparing for the regular season a good experience
He also said he feels the people and training are helping him and everyone else to reach their potential.
With great coaches and such a great program it is impossible not to improve.”