NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Junior Petya
Marinova has overcome many obstacles in her three seasons
at UCLA.
By Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Contributor
Head Coach Stella Sampras will never forget the day junior Petya
Marinova found out she made national rankings.
“She had tears in her eyes,” Sampras said. “As
a coach that is something you cherish, to see a player so happy
that she achieved something she never thought possible.”
A national ranking of No. 85 does seem unbelievable for a player
who once feared she would lose her scholarship for not playing well
enough.
While coming to UCLA was a big adjustment for Marinova, it was
not her first. When she was 13, Marinova’s family immigrated
from Bulgaria to Canada, where she started school only two days
later.
“I didn’t speak any English except “˜hi’
and “˜bye,’ so the other kids made fun of me,”
Marinova said.
She shrugged off the mean kids and focused on tennis. She came
to dominate the Canadian scene where she was National Under-18
Champion in singles and doubles in 1997.
Despite her talents, Marinova’s freshman year got off to a
rocky start.
“She was a top player in Canada and never really had to
struggle. Suddenly she got here and there were other players as
good or better,” Sampras said.
Like her transition from Bulgaria to Canada, Marinova’s
move to UCLA was abrupt and challenging. She did not know she was
accepted to UCLA until December and had to arrange to graduate from
high school a semester early and then arrive at UCLA in January.
Everything happened so quickly that she was not even registered for
classes when she arrived and ended up with whatever was left
open.
“I didn’t know if I would pass my classes,”
Marinova said. “I would stay up all night studying and then
come to practice tired. I felt rushed because when I came the
season started right away.”
Although she had a solid 17-12 overall record, Marinova felt
overwhelmed her first year. While the balance between school and
tennis improved in her sophomore year, she still had problems on
the court.
“Last year I was just like, “˜Omigod, another day of
practice.’ I didn’t know how I was going to last two
more years,” she said.
Part of the problem was that Marinova did not communicate with
her coaches.
At one tournament, for example, her wrist was hurting and she
could not hit cross court.
“The coach kept yelling at me to hit cross court and I
kept hitting down the line because I couldn’t do it,”
Marinova said. “He thought I was ignoring him on
purpose.”
She waited until after the match to tell her furious coach that
she was in too much pain to follow his directions. He understood
but asked why she did not just tell him that in the first
place.
Frequent injuries were her main problem, first with a rotator
cuff, then with tendinitis in her wrist. Marinova hated playing
injured because she could not play her best, and Marinova is the
kind of stubborn player who does not want to play less than
perfect. Her sophomore year she posted a 5-15 singles and 18-10
doubles record and was afraid of losing her scholarship because she
wasn’t playing at the level she expected.
Something had to change.
Part of that change has come from the fact that Marinova has
stayed injury-free all season. But her attitude changed as
well.
“She has matured a lot,” Sampras said. “This
fall was the turning point. I think the biggest things are that she
realized she has to take responsibility for her game and stop
worrying about the outside.
“She used to worry about what the coaches and the team
thought, but she feels comfortable with herself this
year.”
Marinova has worked hard all along, but now with her growing
confidence in her game, that work is paying off on the court. She
has been playing No. 2 and No. 3 in singles and winning most of her
matches.
“We had really good players last year and I felt like I
had to play like them, but that wasn’t my style,”
Marinova said. “It took me a while to realize not everyone
plays the same, but now I know what my game is.”
Although she is not a hard hitter, Marinova returns every ball
and waits for her opportunity, a quality which drives her opponents
crazy.
Despite her changing outlook, Marinova has not lost her fiery
personality on the court. She can still be seen cursing, hitting
the fence with her racket, and hollering when things are not going
right or even sometimes when they are.
Marinova’s emotional style of play pairs well with her
doubles partner, freshman Lauren Fisher. They had immediate
chemistry and their combined talents have made them the No. 19
doubles team in the country.
“I’m very emotional on the court, so it is good to
have someone to talk to. She knows how I feel,” Marinova said
of Fisher.
“But it is weird for me this year because I lead the
doubles team and I’ve never been the leader.”
Being a leader is a change for a player who just last year felt
isolated from her team, but it is a role at which Marinova succeeds
for just that reason.
“She helps the underclassmen because she knows what
it’s like,” Sampras said. “I’ve been so
impressed with the way she has stepped up. She gets it from her
work ethic.”
Marinova reaped the rewards of that labor as she played as high
as No. 2 singles, winning matches she did not think she could win
and beating many of the people she lost to last year. But the
highlight of the season so far is making the top 100 players.
Like Coach Sampras, freshman Mariko Fritz-Krockow remembers
congratulating Petya on her ranking.
“When I saw her at practice, she told me, “˜I never
thought I would get it in singles. When I saw it in the Daily Bruin
this morning I just started crying,'” she said.
After an emotional first two seasons, Marinova can save her
tears for the next time she accomplishes what she never thought
possible.