00:00Trinidad and Tobago tennis player Alicia Alexis is making a name for herself in the United States.
00:07Currently attending Edward Waters University in Florida, Alexis recently became the president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee executive board.
00:15Now 21, Alexis continues to focus on her tennis since that's the sport which earned her a scholarship to the U.S.
00:22For me being a trainee tennis player in the states, particularly Florida, there have been just many, many opportunities for tennis all around me which is really great.
00:32Whether in the south or the north, there's just tennis happening all over the state. The weather is also really great for it.
00:39A lot of days as hot as in Trinidad, so there are a lot of opportunities for tournaments, camps, workshops, just getting all aspects of tennis into my life.
00:48A former student of St. Joseph's Convent in Port of Spain, Alexis is studying marketing.
00:54It means she has to find ways to balance her studies and tennis sessions.
00:58We usually practice two to two and a half hours every afternoon and have an hour of weight training in the morning, three days a week.
01:04Weekends are usually off, so it's not too difficult to balance.
01:08Having said that, it becomes somewhat hectic when she has to travel on weekends to participate in away games.
01:15Sometimes they run for three to five days, which means Alexis has to plan smartly.
01:20We can play a lot of matches in that time, up to two or three teams in one day.
01:25So getting back to the hotel after dinner, we are very tired and it's just not a great, it's not a great environment to be doing assignments.
01:34So it's always better for me to get that done ahead of time so that I can just focus on my matches and recovery when I am away for those games.
01:43Alexis has already represented the red, white and black on the tennis court.
01:47But now that she is in the States, does she ever plan on doing so again?
01:51I do have plans to represent Trinidad and Tobago in the future. I've always loved doing that. I'm so proud to be from Trinidad.
01:58I have been doing that since I was about 12 years old. Even around campus training, sometimes I rep my Trinidad and Tobago streets that I have gotten over the years.
02:06So once the opportunity presents itself and the timing is right, I would definitely do it again.
02:11Her message to youngsters taking up the sport is to keep at it since they too can earn scholarships and be exposed to state-of-the-art facilities.
02:20Vinod Nawani, Chiefs Expoort.
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