Southern native ‘waves’ hello to undefeated start

GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor

 Women’s tennis team freshman Anu Bhargava is having a big impact on the court in the Waves’ dual match season this semester, posting an undefeated singles record and just one doubles loss thus far. The Collierville, Tenn., native recently sat down with the Graphic to chat about her freshman year, her biggest pet peeve and what she misses most from the South.

What brought you to Pepperdine in the first place?

 “I kind of always wanted to go far away for some reason. I was talking to a school in Chicago, two schools in California including Pepperdine, and Texas. I think I just decided that Malibu was best. I love the coaches here and the girl’s tennis team. My school choice was mainly on tennis but Pepperdine is a good mix between academics and tennis.”

What are you doing when you’re not playing tennis?

 “Usually when I’m not playing tennis, I’m in my room trying to do homework. When that doesn’t work out I’m usually with my roommate, Alex Liles, who is on the tennis team as well. She usually takes me to Santa Monica and we spend hours shopping, and we’ll stay there and shop and shop and shop.  Usually every day we’ll stick in a movie when we’re doing homework. I don’t know if we watch, but we usually have a movie going on. We also hang out with the tennis guys a lot, so when we go out we go out with them.”

What’s your idea of a perfect day?

 “Start class at about 10, go play tennis for three hours, then have weights, do well on tests, get my homework done early, and then probably go out at night.”

What’s one thing you’d like to change about yourself?

 “Probably time management. I wish when I open my book to study I wouldn’t doodle on the page and listen to music. I wish I actually studied and finished it and didn’t procrastinate.”

What makes you laugh?

 “My roommate … she’s hilarious, I’d be so depressed at school if it wasn’t for her. She’s just so random and goofy. We call her “lil mama,” because she’s 21 and lives in the freshman dorms with me.”

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

 “I really hate it when, at the end of a movie in a movie theater, people clap at the movie. It bothers the heck out of me. Why do you need to clap at the end of a movie? Nobody is going to hear you except for the audience.”

What do you miss most from the South?

 “I miss the southern preppy boys because in California we don’t have too many preppy boys — they’re all surfers. I like the preppy collared boys, the southern comfort and southern gentleman.”

Is your freshman year going as expected?

 “Yes, tennis is going better than I expected. I didn’t think I was going to be doing as well as I’m doing. I haven’t lost a singles match yet in the team singles, and I just lost my first doubles match against LSU. School-wise, it’s a lot of fun. I think I expected it to be a little bit bigger but it’s okay. It’s fine. Tennis is my life anyway.”

What’s been your biggest improvement in your tennis game since playing in college?

 “I’ve tried fixing my serve. It has its up and downs, but this last week I served okay, it wasn’t bad. It was a lot better than before. I’ve improved that, just changed it a little bit. Also, my forehand wasn’t as strong, my backhand is my stronger side. I think I’ve been able to hit my forehand pretty well. I’ve just gotten a lot stronger, lifting three times a week and doing sprints. I never did that before in high school. I used to play one hour a day but now I’m playing three hours a day and lifting.”

What are your thoughts on the new assistant coach, Scott Doerner?

 “I love Scott, he pushes us and he’s really fun because he’s young. We also respect him because he was No. 1 on the Pepperdine men’s team two years ago. So, we know he knows what he’s talking about. All the girls like him — not one of us say anything bad about him. We want him to stay for a long time.”

What are your goals for this season?

 “Sophomore Anete Bandere and I are 35th in the country in doubles. It would be awesome to make it to NCAA championships in doubles. I really hope we can do that and I think we can. It’s not really a goal because I think we should make it. I guess getting All-American, that’s every freshman’s dream. So that’d be nice.”

02-07-2008