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Tennis grounds Ryoto Tachi as he moves across oceans, away from family

Redshirt junior Ryoto Tachi has settled into his new home at UCLA after playing tennis internationally growing up. (Miriam Bribiesca/Daily Bruin)

By Lea Chang

April 29, 2015 12:52 a.m.

Because of how often he moved around as a child, people frequently ask UCLA men’s tennis player Ryoto Tachi where he considers his home to be.

Tachi says that the technical answer is Japan. However, because of the mobile nature of his father’s work, he had to learn to feel at home in a number of places.

What helped him do so was playing tennis.

After moving from Japan to Uzbekistan at 3 years old, Tachi started playing tennis with his family on weekends. Tachi continued the sport when he moved back to Japan at age 7, playing competitively both in his native country and then in India, where he moved four years after returning to Japan.

“Once you get used to the place (and) living there, you make friends … (so) letting go of what you had is pretty hard,” he said.

Regardless, Tachi said he liked being able to see the world and experience the different cultures of all the countries he lived in.

“At first, in Japan, he only knew children who lived near us or went to school with him,” said Tachi’s father, Yoshihisa Tachi, in an interview translated from Japanese. “But because of tennis, he went to tournaments in various countries and made friends there. Even now in America, he’ll meet friends he made at tournaments years ago.”

The redshirt junior made the decision to move to the United States during his junior year of high school – when his family was about to move back to Japan for his father’s job. He wanted to stay close to his family but knew going to school in Japan would mean choosing between tennis and studying, whereas in the United States he could attend high school and perform at a high level in both areas.

“In Japan … if you decide that you’re going to study, you have to put the time that would have gone to tennis into school, and if you’re going to do sports you can’t afford to worry about your grades,” said Tachi’s mother, Masako Tachi, in an interview translated from Japanese. “Although he was very close to his family and wanted to be near us, there really was no other choice to him except to go to America.”

Tachi enrolled in the Weil Tennis Academy in Ojai, a city that is a hotspot for tennis tournaments in California. There, he watched collegiate tennis tournaments and was recruited by UCLA coach Billy Martin.

While Tachi’s UCLA career may not be as prolific as those of his fellow Bruins, his teammates say that he is an integral part of the team. In February, Tachi played a grueling three-set match against Stanford’s David Hsu. His match was the last of the day, and all of his teammates surrounded the court to watch. With the support of his team, he was able to win 12 of the last 13 games, defeating Hsu 2-6, 6-4, 6-0.

In addition to being an exemplary tennis player, Tachi is looked to as a friend and model of good character as well. Senior co-captain Dennis Mkrtchian calls Tachi a well-rounded person who is always willing to play as much or as little as is asked of him.

“He’s respected, he’s a leader of the team,” said Mkrtchian. “He doesn’t talk too much but when he says something it carries meaning.”

Even after coming onto the UCLA men’s tennis team, Tachi has experienced the benefits of playing tennis all over the world.

“It’s a small world – some friends from India are playing college tennis out here too,” Tachi said. “We play San Diego State, I see my friend; we play Fresno State, I see my friend.”

For Tachi, tennis is an aspect of his life that he brought with him as he crossed oceans and had to leave friends behind. It persisted even when he was separated from his family, who currently reside in Moscow.

“Tennis is the one thing that’s connected everything,” Tachi said.

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