Ellie Coleman, who turned professional last year after finishing her collegiate tennis career at Duke University, is coached by Jared Flick (right), who also coached her at the Greater Midland Tennis Center while she was growing up. Coleman is competing in her hometown Dow Tennis Classic this week at the Tennis Center.

Ellie Coleman, who turned professional last year after finishing her collegiate tennis career at Duke University, is coached by Jared Flick (right), who also coached her at the Greater Midland Tennis Center while she was growing up. Coleman is competing in her hometown Dow Tennis Classic this week at the Tennis Center.

Dan Chalk/Midland Daily News

Ellie Coleman has already played a couple of times in her hometown Dow Tennis Classic at the Greater Midland Tennis Center.

The big difference this year, though, is that now she’s competing as a professional with several tournaments under her belt.

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“I think it definitely has a different feeling this year coming back, having been able to play full-time on the tour since graduating back in May,” said Coleman, 22, who turned professional after competing for four years for Duke University in North Carolina.

Coleman, a wild card entry in the DTC main draw this week, said she’s more prepared this year for the level of competition at the Midland tournament.

“I think I just feel an extra dose of experience coming in this year,” Coleman said. “I always felt like the years before, the level of my game was there, but I didn’t play these high-level matches week in and week out like a lot of these girls do. And so I felt like I was just missing that last puzzle piece. And now, having been able to play these (professional) matches for the last 6-8 months, I feel like that’s really helping me going into this week.

“And then, of course, getting to do it with my hometown behind me is always super special,” she added.

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Coleman also has a hometown coach behind her – Jared Flick, who is Director of Player Development at Greater Midland Tennis Center and first worked with Coleman when she was about 8 years old.

“She was using the orange ball with the 23-inch racket, playing on the small court,” Flick recalled. “So it’s definitely been a journey for sure. It’s great to see her go up through all the different levels.”

Flick remembers traveling with Coleman a short time later to Boca Raton, Florida, where she competed in the 12-and-under Clay Court Nationals.

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“Fast forward to recently, we just went to Turkey for about a month and she competed there,” he noted. 

As Coleman says, her tennis career has come “full circle.”

“It’s really a full-circle moment for me, because obviously we worked together when I was very young,” she said of herself and Flick. “If you had told me then that I would be back training in Midland when I was 22 years old with some of the same coaches that I was with when I was 8, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. But it’s been really special to get to train out of Midland again.

“Being on court with Jared every day is great, and he just provides that extra support for my game that is really taking me to the next level,” Coleman added.

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Part of that next level for Coleman is being able to multi-task mentally, Flick explained.

“At this level, the margins (for error) are so small,” he said. “So being able to navigate in and out of losing a point and staying on track is something that as a tennis player in general you have to be good at. It’s one of her superpowers -she’s able to stay in the moment and be able to figure out ways to win while still keeping the bigger picture ahead of looking to improve every single day.

“That’s definitely one of her biggest strengths – between the ears, her mental game,” Flick added.

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Coleman strongly agreed, adding that being mentally disciplined has even helped her enjoy tennis more.

“I do think that’s the part of my game that has improved the most, especially through college. Everybody goes into college at a very high level of tennis, so then it’s, like Jared said, the small things that separate one player from the next,” Coleman said . And I put a lot of work into my mental game and I think that has really paid dividends, and honestly it’s helped me find a new love for the game that I don’t think I really ever had before.”

Footsteps across generations

For his part, Jeff Rekeweg, Executive Director of the Tennis Center and Tournament Director of the Dow Tennis Classic, he’s tickled to see Coleman following in the footsteps of another Midland native, Meredith McGrath, whose then-budding tennis career inspired the founding of the DTC in 1989 and who had a memorable pro career that included a berth in the 1996 Wimbledon semifinals.

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“With the tournament starting with a Midland native, and now we’ve got another Midland native in Ellie Coleman who’s starting her professional career, (it’s a neat connection),” Rekeweg said. “And it was a lot of fun for me personally, because I think a lot of the family, to be able to offer her the first main draw wild card of the year for this year’s tournament. We’re grateful that she accepted it and she’s here playing.”

Now, in turn, young players in Midland are looking up to Coleman and aspiring to follow her path, Rekeweg said in reference to a reception for DTC players and sponsors held on Sunday at the Midland Country Club.

“There was a young lady sitting here who’s a 10-year-old who wants to be Ellie Coleman some day,” Rekeweg said. “And we let her come to this (reception) tonight berceuse her goal is to play professionally. And she’s in our junior program and Jared (Flick) discovered her as well.

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“That’s pretty cool to see that come full circle. Ellie was that kid and now she has other kids looking up to her,” he added.