Fair Lawn's Shklover a Reluctant Champion

Valerie Shklover groaned when she learned her name and athletic accomplishments would again be plastered on ’s outside display board for all passersby to see.

The sophomore tennis sensation, who was recently named “Bergen County Girls Tennis Player of the Year,” still isn’t comfortable with the slew of accolades and attention that have accompanied her on-court dominance.

“If I’m known as the “tennis girl,” all of my other accomplishments are kind of like, faded,” said Shklover, who’s also active in student government and peer leadership at the . “I’d rather be known as smart than really good at tennis.”

“I mean, it’s great,” Shklover said of the Player of the Year honor, “but I feel like it’s not that big a deal.”

Fair Lawn varsity tennis coach Matt Markman begged to differ.

“This is a major accomplishment to be Player of the Year,” Markman said. “I don’t know if Valerie realizes what a big deal this is for her, for the school. Not many people get this honor.”

According to the Tennis Recruiting Network, an amateur tennis ranking service, Shklover is the second-ranked girls tennis player in New Jersey at her grade level.

She didn’t lose a match, let alone a single set at the high school level all year until the quarterfinals of the state tournament in West Windsor last month.

Shklover’s state quarterfinals defeat came at the forehand of friend and USTA (United States Tennis Association) doubles partner Joanna Zalewski, a Linden High School freshman.

“We play each other every weekend,” said Shklover of Zalewski, describing their matches as intense. “I’ve beaten her once or twice, and she’s beaten me a lot more than I’ve beaten her.”

In their state tournament match, Zalewski, the top-ranked freshman in New Jersey, got the best of Shklover in three sets, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. 

“I got a really slow start,” Shklover said of her final high school match this year. “I was down most of the match.”

Cold and windy conditions didn’t help matters. Nor did having to face a friend.

“That made it more difficult,” Shklover said. “Even if you don’t think about it, in the back of your mind you’re still kind of like, “Eh, she’s my friend. Stop doing that.’”

It’s that lack of an ultra-competitive edge that Shklover said has held her back somewhat as a tennis player, especially when up against a fierce competitor like Zalewski.

“She doesn’t falter,” Shklover said of her USTA doubles partner. “When I’m playing I lose concentration. I start doing homework in my head, like I conjugate French verbs while I’m playing.”

Zalewski, on the other hand, is intensely focused, according to Shklover.

“She doesn’t think about anything else…She’s really into it. You can’t break that.”

That’s not to say Shklover isn’t a serious competitor. Earlier this year,

But as Shklover explained it, she doesn’t like to add unnecessary pressure by driving the stakes of any one match too high.

It’s why she said she never goes into a match with any expectations, no matter who she's facing, because she doesn’t want to set herself up for failure.

“I think the fact that I’m not 100 percent driven into it helps me because if I was and I lose then its like, ‘Well, this is awkward. I just gave it my best and my best wasn’t good enough.’

“I like to give myself room to breathe,” she continued. “If I’m on a tennis court and I’m going to be there for three-and-a-half hours, I want to think about something else for a little bit. Three-and-a-half hours of tennis in succession is quite strenuous on one’s brain.”

With the high school season now finished, Shklover’s been focusing on the more-competitive USTA circuit, where, without much to prove in her own age class, she recently began competing in the 18-year-old division.

Shklover said her last tournament went well, but that it’s more of a challenge than 16s, where she had been playing.

“Everyone’s bigger. Everyone cares more. Everyone hits harder. Everything is more,” she said of 18s.

Shklover also has slightly more free time without high school tennis on her plate. During the high school season, Shklover said she’d go to school, play a match afterward, then head to a USTA practice for three hours, before making it home around 9 p.m. when she had to hit the books.

Having cut out after-school matches, Shklover now has a window of time after school for extracurriculars and homework.

On the weekends she travels all over the country for USTA matches. Next month she’ll be flying to Arizona to compete in the USTA Supernationals on Christmas.

It can be grueling, she said, but she’s gotten used to it.

“I try to [take a break] in the summer, I try to get two weeks and go places or do things,” she said. “But then again after two weeks, I get bored. Like what am I doing? The mall was interesting for a day, and I could read for seven days straight, but then I feel like I’m not doing anything.”

In preparation for an individual state title run next year, Shklover said she needs to work mentally on her concentration and physically on her strength.

A couple years from now, she hopes to be playing tennis in college at an Ivy League school.

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