Talented Tsu Enjoys Sharing Love of Tennis

Brooke Tsu is running out of shelf space to accommodate the trophies she’s taken home during her already distinguished Burlingame High tennis career.

Tsu has already won two Peninsula Athletic League singles titles, and is heavy favorite to win her third this year as a senior.

But that’s not what Tsu is most proud of.

The bigger accomplishment, she said, was her role in helping lead the Panthers to a PAL team championship last season. Tsu, who follows a tradition of great Burlingame tennis players that goes back to the 1980s, played a big part in the Panthers going 14-0 in league.

“I’m friends with everyone on the team and it’s just more fun to share with your friends,” Tsu said.

She could soon also share a bond with two former Panthers that would make her part of select club.

Tsu hopes to play Division I tennis next season, following in the footsteps of San Mateo County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Linda Gates (1981), who went on to win a NCAA title at Stanford in 1985, and Janelle Perez (1998) who played at Penn State.

Burlingame coach Bill Smith described Tsu as a Division I–caliber player with a rare blend of power and finesse.

“She can hit with power, she’s a strong kid and she can bang pretty good, but she’s very adept at playing a softer sort of game” too, Smith said.

“She can counterpunch whenever she cares to. Most of the kids, the way they counterpunch is serendipity brings an opponent to the net, and then they’ll pass, whereas she can draw somebody to the net with a drop shot or a chip angle.

“Other kids try it, but she can actually do it.”

Tsu is gifted with great hands, Smith said, allowing her to place some seemingly impossible spots, and handle just about anything that comes her way.

“If you’re blasting the ball at her, she can take that speed off the ball,” Smith said.

Tsu said she prides herself for playing an aggressive style she says is loosely molded after watching Roger Federer’s propensity to attack the net. Her playing style comes in stark contrast to most of today’s players who sit on the baseline.

Tsu, who is an exceptional student, wants to play high-level college tennis, but says academics come first. She is an Honor Roll student with a 4.5 GPA taking mostly Advanced Placement classes.

She scored 800 on her math SAT, and has been a California Scholarship Federation and California Junior Scholarship Federation member since she was in sixth grade.

Tsu hasn’t yet decided on her major, but said she’ll probably study a math- or science-related field. Tops on her college wish list is Columbia, which doesn’t offer sports scholarships, meaning she’d have to walk on.

But count on her playing somewhere.

Tsu developed a love for tennis as soon as she picked up her first racket when she was 5, and started playing competitively when she was 10.

Smith said her ambassadorship has meant almost as much to the program as her game.

“She’s been infectious to the team, building a group of kids around her,” Smith said, noting that she’s a fun factor to practices that can get monotonous sometimes.

“If you’re not out there having fun it gets stale, why would you even want to be out there?” he said.

Her ambassador role is especially important at a time when tennis has grown increasingly individual-oriented, Smith said.

“In the sport of tennis they can go out and find tournaments,” he said. “They don’t need high school tennis to be able to achieve in tennis, so there better be a team component to it and Brooke is a big part of that.”

Tsu said she prides herself for her role in promoting the sport.

“I feel like there’s such a stigma with the word ‘tennis,’ it’s like everybody thinks there’s not much athletic ability involved.

“I’ve been an athlete my whole life and I feel tennis is definitely on the same level as other sports.”

Tsu plays some of those other sports too.

She was a rising basketball standout who as a freshman was the frosh-soph MVP and was called up to the varsity for the playoffs. Sophomore year she played varsity ball and competed on the track and field team, placing third in the discus in the PAL frosh-soph finals.

She plans to play soccer this winter and continues to run track mostly to stay in shape, and hopefully bring a few future tennis players aboard.

“The only thing I’m not crazy about it is that (tennis) is not a team sport,” she said. “I like the idea of sharing with my team, because I feel it makes it a better experience.”