Our Stories

Older Sister:

My name is Fabiana Gonzalez, I am an 18 year old Venezuelan tennis player. I migrated to the United States in 2019 at the age of 12 years old due to the economic situation of my country. My parents decided to leave everything we once had behind in order to chase our dreams in a better place. I started playing tennis when I was 3 years old so throughout my whole life I have been able to play competitive tournaments. I have gotten to travel around various states in my own country and also in the United States.

Thankfully, I have accomplished a lot playing this sport. In Venezuela, I was ranked 4th nationally and 1st in Lara (the state I am from) in the Girl’s 12 before moving to the U.S. In Utah, I have also made it to the top players in the state in every single one of the categories. This past year, I also received a full ride scholarship to play tennis at Fresno Pacific University, which was one of my many dreams as an immigrant. With my High School team, I won state in singles and was awarded the High School Player of the Year. As a whole our team got second place. Not only winning has been part of my accomplishments though, making it to high level tournaments like L1s and L2s has also made me feel like I am a good competitive player with a lot of potential.

My goals with tennis are to just get better every day, I am working on my forehand and serve to get stronger. In college, I hope to be one of the best players for my school and to win for my team as much as I can. For the future, I really hope I can be a professional player and represent my country as a big player, I would love to travel and play tennis in many parts of the world and hopefully have a family that will support my tennis career and who will live good life because of the success I’ll have doing what I love.

Thank you for your time reading this letter.

Youngest sister:

Hello ,

I am Luciana Gonzalez, a 15 year old Venezuelan tennis player. I’ve been playing tennis since I was 3 years old and I dream of reaching professional level in my sport. For my whole life, tennis has been immensely important to me because I fell in love with the sport at a young age. I have always had a family that supports me mentally, emotionally and always reminds me how big me and my sister can go, which im infinitely grateful for.

Throughout 7-9 years old playing green ball in Venezuela, I reached 2nd ranked nationally. Due to the situation in my country, we had to emigrate to the U.S. I started from scratch, playing orange ball because of my age and to collect points as I aged up to the 12s. In the 12s, I reached 2nd ranked in Utah, 10 in the intermountain section and 208 nationally. In the 14s I was 1st in the state at some point and 8 in the intermountain section . I recently aged up to the 16s so I am barely starting to gain points in the division. In 2024, I was able to make it into L1 Easter Bowl and Orange Bowl tournaments , which I reached round of 16’s in doubles. I’ve played some L2’s, won some L3s in doubles, and a couple L4s in both singles and doubles. I am a freshman in high school and this past season, which was my first, I was a region champion and state champion. This January I won a L4 in doubles here in Utah and just yesterday I won a tournament playing 18s.

For these next weeks I want to get my forehand stronger, my backhand spinier and heavier, and a higher first serve percentage in my game. I also want to better my mental part of the game on court, so I can play my best tennis and my head doesn’t get in the way. In the next months, before 2025 ends, I want to get my UTR up to a 7.5-7.8 even an 8 if it’s possible and I want to win many tournaments with confidence in myself and my game. In the next few years, I plan on playing college tennis. My goal is to get a scholarship and play Division 1 tennis since my parents don’t have financial resources to pay for my schooling . Lastly, after college or during college, I would like to go on the pro tour and dedicate myself fully to tennis, I could die happy after that.

Thank you for taking the time to read this , our goal is to actually be able to travel to tournaments to improve our ranking so we can qualify for the biggest tournaments.