Embarking on the Professional Circuit is exciting. You get to travel, compete, and have a chance to make a career out of playing tennis. For the experience alone, it is worth it. But a pro career will also test your mental and emotional strength. It’s a lonely sport and the Circuit will amplify that loneliness, especially if you can’t afford to pay for a coach or friend to travel with you. Speaking of money, if you’re not well-funded, you will be broke, even if you’re winning a lot of matches and tournaments. The top 100 ATP and WTA players, the ones that make it into Grand Slam Championships, will earn enough to fund their travels.

My first ATP ranking points came from winning the first round of a $50K Challenger in Hawaii. I won a wild card tournament to get into the main draw of the Honolulu Challenger. A first-round win at a Challenger earned me 7 ATP points. But, for the purpose of describing the professional grind, I earned my first ATP point the normal way much later, about five months after graduating from college.

The ITF Futures Circuit is where you begin a career in professional tennis. You will start in the qualifying draw and will have to win three matches to get into the main draw. In some places, you will only need to win two matches to qualify and in larger tournaments, you will need to win four matches. You won’t earn your first ATP point until you win the first main draw round.

Post-college, my first two Futures tournaments were in South Korea. I skipped my graduation ceremony at the University of Hawaii to get to Changwon a few days early so I could acclimate to the climate and time difference. I still felt sleepy at the wrong time of day. I lost to the same player in both tournaments. I came back home for four days and then flew to Munich, Germany. In Munich, I qualified and then lost my first round. I qualified and lost my first round of each tournament I played for about four months. I could not get past the first round. It was mental and financial pressure. I did not feel the freedom to let go and play. In one first-round match, I was up 6-0, 3-0 but lost 6-4 in the third.

Qualifying for nearly every tournament meant I was winning three matches and losing one. The experience and confidence begins to build and I was able to pull my first ATP point at a Futures in Southern California. This one was a four-round qualifying event. My first round was against another former college player and I played an uncomfortable 4.5 hours. I then won fairly easily my next three rounds and clinched the first-round win against a Brazilian player. I had to win five matches to get one ATP point. It’s like winning a Futures tournament.