PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — Tennis is often described as one of the most demanding sports, physically intense, mentally taxing, and unforgiving. There\u2019s no teammate to lean on in critical moments. Every point rests on your own decisions, your own focus, your own execution.<\/p>\n
At just 11 years old, Amina Doumbia is already learning to thrive in that environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s got amazing focus,\u201d her coach, Chris Roman, said. \u201cShe never talks back. She listens, she digests it, and then she applies it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doumbia isn\u2019t your typical pre-teen. On the court, she carries herself with a confidence far beyond her years. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like winning. I love to win,\u201d Doumbia said with a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s just-it\u2019s so fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
That mindset is translating into rapid success.<\/p>\n
In a short amount of time, Doumbia has gone from an unknown talent to one of the top junior tennis players in the country. The rise has been dramatic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started, she was around 2,000 in the country,\u201d her father Abdoulaye said. \u201cNow she\u2019s in the top 100.\u201d<\/p>\n
That development has come under the guidance of Chris Roman, a former CSU Pueblo standout, who works with Doumbia regularly when she\u2019s not traveling to tournaments across the country.<\/p>\n
Roman has coached many young players, but says none quite like her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe can hit with my [women’s] college players. She\u2019s that good,\u201d he said. \u201cShe could probably beat half of them.”<\/p>\n
Natural talent alone doesn\u2019t produce results like this. Doumbia\u2019s journey is built on hours of training and sacrifices that many kids her age don\u2019t have to make.<\/p>\n
But she doesn\u2019t do it alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot all kids have parents that support them like mine do,\u201d Doumbia said. \u201cThey\u2019re out here all day with me. We make it fun, we\u2019ll eat popsicles during breaks. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
That support system has helped her stay grounded, even as expectations grow.<\/p>\n
With her rapid improvement and competitive mindset, Doumbia is already setting her sights on the next level: professional tennis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit,\u201d her father said. \u201cIf she keeps working like this, there\u2019s no reason she can\u2019t get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet for all the wins and rankings, Doumbia is gaining something even more valuable.<\/p>\n
\u201cLearning how to deal with hard things, and still make it fun,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s just the way life is.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lesson many athletes don\u2019t fully grasp until much later in their careers.<\/p>\n
For Amina Doumbia, it\u2019s already becoming second nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — Tennis is often described as one of the most demanding sports, physically intense, mentally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-722470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}