This spring, in her first season in the 14-and-under division, she took the next step, capturing the championship on June 28 with a 6-3, 6-2 victory against Heidi Wang of Devens in the finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girl I played was very good, but I won the last time I played her,\u201d said Valentina, who will enter eighth grade at Concord Middle School this fall. \u201cI went into the finals with more confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
After winning the New England title, Valentina traveled to Plantation, Florida, for the 14-and-under national clay court championships, where she reached the quarterfinals and defeated the No. 2 seed in her tournament run.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good performance,\u201d she said. \u201cThere aren\u2019t many clay courts in Massachusetts. I haven\u2019t played much on clay. The ball travels more slowly on clay, but I got used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\u201cAthletically](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sports-arlati-action-1-1024x677.jpg\")
\u201cAthletically she\u2019s very good,\u201d tennis coach Francisco Montoya says. \u201cShe\u2019s also a lefty, and \u2026 lefties bring variety to the game. They\u2019re very creative.\u201d Courtesy photo<\/p>\n
A shift in focus<\/p>\n
Valentina credits much of her improvement in the past year to a change in mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve become more of a competitor,\u201d she said. \u201cNow when I play, I want to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her mental approach has evolved while working with coaches Francisco Montoya of Montoya Tennis Academy and Paco Maroto of Alligator Shot Tennis Academy. She trains with both programs in Acton; she sometimes works with Montoya at St. John\u2019s Prep in Danvers or the Pingree School in South Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u2018She loves to have fun while training, but she\u2019s learning to be more professional,\u201d Montoya said. \u201cShe\u2019s built better training habits. She\u2019s always been very talented, but her approach to the game is more professional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though she works hard, she still enjoys it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey make practice fun,\u201d Valentina said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like a burden.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her style on the court is well-rounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good all-around game,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a big serve for girls my age.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Montoya: \u201cShe can play the full court. She can play the baseline but also come up to the net and put the ball away. Athletically she\u2019s very good.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s also a lefty, and there aren\u2019t many lefties out there,\u201d he said. \u201cLefties bring variety to the game. They\u2019re very creative.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tourney circuit<\/p>\n
At the USTA Intersectional tournament, a team event in West Point, New York, late last month, Valentina went 9-1, her mother said. In the girls 14 singles group, she ranks No. 2 in New England and No. 33 nationally.<\/p>\n
Up next are the national hard court championships in Rome, Georgia, from August 8-15.<\/p>\n
In December, Valentina is scheduled to play in the Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, facing some of the world\u2019s top talent. A year ago, she reached the second round.<\/p>\n
Next year, she said she is likely to attend Concord-Carlisle High School and compete for the Patriots. If she does, she would join a long line of outstanding female tennis players at CCHS, including Wendy Crabtree (Notre Dame), Shivani Dav\u00e9 (University of Illinois), Julia Cancio (Williams College), and Maggie Dorr (Tufts University).<\/p>\n
Valentina\u2019s already set her sights on competing in college.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to play Division I,\u201d she said, \u201cmaybe UCLA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Montoya: \u201cIt\u2019s a goal to go to a top Division I school. In the next year, she\u2019ll be playing the top players of her age. The road is hard but [there\u2019s] a very good support system.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Donate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/donate-banner-0726-5-1024x171.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Stephen Tobey \u2014 Correspondent Two years ago, Valentina Arlati placed third in the U.S. Tennis Association New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-847970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}