Seeing her father Mike and a friend from their Yorkville neighborhood go to the high school tennis courts for occasional friendly matches started 7-year-old Ashley Hatch thinking.
“She was like, ‘Why don’t you ever take me?'” Mike Hatch recalled. “So we took her, and she really enjoyed it.”
Did she ever. Fast forward seven years.
Freshman Ashley Hatch is the No. 1 singles player in the lineup for Yorkville coach Frank Yabsley. He’s glad the precocious youngster pressed her dad to let her try something new.
Hatch has started the season 15-1, with her only loss coming in a Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference match at Morris. She had to retire with leg cramps midway through the second set, tied 3-3. She had dropped her first and only set of the season on a 10-8 tiebreaker in the first set.
Yorkville (11-5, 3-1) resumes this weekend in the conference meet at Rochelle and then moves on to the nine-team Class 2A West Aurora Sectional in the first year of a two-class system in the state series for tennis.
“I was mostly a tomboy,” Ashley Hatch said, thinking back. “I thought (tennis) looked like fun.”
She also enjoyed softball, basketball and dance.
Mike Hatch, who played two years of high school tennis before playing basketball in college at Wisconsin-Eau Claire, hit balls with his daughter and taught her some basics.
“We did that for a while, but I didn’t play that much tennis,” Mike Hatch said. “I knew she’d be much better than me, so we got her some professional help.”
It started with classes at the Vaughan Center in Aurora. She now works with Sanja Djokic, one of the staff professionals at Rush-Copley Healthplex.
“She probably began playing competitively at 10,” said Angie, her mom. “Going into seventh grade she told us she wanted to focus on tennis. She’s been pretty dedicated.”
Ashley Hatch only remembers being very nervous in her first tournament. Her father said it came at a United States Tennis Association local event at Rush-Copley.
“I don’t think she won a game,” he said. “She tried the whole time, though, and didn’t let it get to her.”
She kept working, climbing as high as No. 12 in the Northern Illinois USTA rankings for 14-year-olds.
“I just want to make sure she doesn’t get burned out, make sure the passion is there,” Mike Hatch said. “She’s pretty hard on herself. We’ve got to maintain her enjoyment of it.”
She has lessons 2-3 times a week and plays in weekend events once or twice a month.
“Sometimes your coach is there, sometimes not,” Ashley Hatch said. “There’s no coaching between games, though. I’ll make note cards and reminders for myself.”
She’s finds high school tennis different, but enjoys it.
“I kind of like the team aspect, not just rooting for myself, but other people, too,” she said.
Yorkville hasn’t faced many of the teams in its sectional, so a prediction on seeding is tricky.
“I’ll try taking it one match at a time and not really overwhelm myself,” Hatch said. “I don’t want to get too excited or ahead of myself. My focus is conference, although I’d love to get to state.”
She said she has a strong serve and likes to attack the net.
“I’m really, really aggressive and will try to go for a winner right away,” she said. “So right now, I’m trying to learn to be patient.”
Twitter @RickArmstrong28
