Student of the Game ft. Sarah Borwell

Summary

Sarah Borwell — British former WTA professional (career high #65 in the world, British #1 in doubles), University of Houston scholarship player, and founder of Tennis Smart — describes her work helping British junior players understand the full spectrum of post-junior tennis pathways and the program she co-founded with Barry Fulcher called Student of the Game. The four pathways framework at the center of her work: professional tour, British University, American University, and tennis industry career. Student of the Game delivers this framework through weekend camps combining tennis, SAT/academic tutoring, UTR-building dual matches (college format, with national anthem and team introductions), and Q&As with former college players like Julian Cash (Oklahoma State). The episode covers COVID’s impact on placement (350+ women in the transfer portal, 70 college programs cut), the D1-or-bust misconception in British tennis (mirrored in the US), why Borwell nearly quit at 14, and the sports psychology investment she wishes she’d made as a professional.

Guest Background

Sarah Borwell grew up in Durham and Cleveland (north of England), started tennis as a young junior, and nearly quit at age 14 due to the anxiety of competition — kept in the sport by her social group and her local tennis club rather than competitive ambition. After discovering the American college tennis system (which young British players at the time were largely unaware of), she played at the University of Houston on scholarship, reached #65 in the world in singles and British #1 in doubles on the WTA tour, then founded Tennis Smart in 2006 to help British players navigate the college pathways she had benefited from. She is based in the DC area at the time of recording. Her co-founder and partner in Student of the Game, Barry Fulcher, was a childhood friend she met at age 10 in the sport — a long-standing tennis relationship that produced a business partnership built on shared values and complementary expertise (Borwell on the American university placement side, Fulcher on UK tournament series development and competitive opportunity creation).

Key Findings

1. The Four Pathways Framework

Borwell’s organizing framework for British junior player career planning identifies four distinct post-competitive-junior options: (1) Professional tour — requires top 10 world junior ranking, winning junior Grand Slams, and approximately $1M in financial runway to genuinely pursue; (2) British University — a viable and underexplained option that British players overlook because they assume American university is the superior option; (3) American University — the pathway Borwell personally took, which “changed her life” but is not appropriate for every player; and (4) Tennis industry career — coaching, management, facility operations, without a university route — accessible through the LTA Level 1 coaching badge as an entry point. Her complaint about the current system: “as a junior, you weren’t sat down at 16 and said, okay, these are the pathways — you can go pro but these are the attributes you need.” The absence of structured pathway education at age 15-16 produces a 50% dropout rate.

2. D1-or-Bust Is a Myth in Both Countries

Borwell identifies the D1-or-bust misconception as equally prevalent among British families considering American university and among American families: “when you first start talking to a player they say ‘well I only want to come if I’m going to a division one’ — and then I have to explain it’s not like the Premier League in soccer, you don’t get relegated down or promoted.” Some of the worst tennis and academic environments in the US are D1, and some of the best are D3 — the division label is not a proxy for program quality. The variables that actually matter: coach communication style, whether the coach is developmental, schedule difficulty, lineup position opportunity, degree program quality, location, and internship/networking access. A strong D3 or mid-major placement that checks all these boxes is more valuable than a prestigious D1 placement that doesn’t.

3. COVID’s Multi-Year Pipeline Disruption

Borwell describes working through the COVID disruption as “incredibly difficult.” The NCAA decision to grant additional eligibility years to COVID-affected players created cascading effects: 70 college programs were cut, budgets at D2 programs shrank (reducing financial aid for international recruits), and squad sizes temporarily inflated with additional-eligibility players — 11 full rides on a single roster at some D1 programs. This meant players who would normally have received power-five offers were being displaced to mid-major programs, and 350+ women were simultaneously in the transfer portal seeking placements. Borwell predicts the disruption continues through 2024. The COVID context provides a window into the structural fragility of college tennis as a placement and development ecosystem.

4. SAT Prep as a Leverage Tool for International Players

Borwell’s first Student of the Game camp was specifically built around SAT tutoring — four hours of tutoring alternating with four hours of tennis across a Saturday. Her reasoning: “tutoring is quite expensive and as a parent you think oh gosh I’m not sure I can afford £100 an hour to study for an SAT, so a lot of players don’t do it in the UK — even though doing well on it could save you $16,000 and open up loads of different doors for tennis.” British players who improve their SAT scores expand their viable school options significantly, particularly at academically rigorous programs that might otherwise be out of reach. The camp’s Saturday format was designed to make the academic preparation feel integrated with tennis rather than separate from it.

5. Student of the Game Camps: College Tennis Experience as a Preview

The Sunday component of each Student of the Game camp runs a college-format dual match with national anthem, team introductions, music, fist-pumping, and UTR match points. Borwell’s design intent: “it’s difficult when we first get here where we’re not used to being so kind of expressive and fist pumping and cheering — so we wanted to make it as loud as possible.” British players who have never experienced the energy of American college tennis are being prepared culturally for what they would encounter, reducing culture shock and improving their ability to evaluate programs they visit. The camps also include Q&As with former college athletes — Julian Cash (Oklahoma State) appearing in the episode’s cited session — who can answer questions honestly that players wouldn’t ask Borwell directly (like questions about social life and team culture).

6. Dropout Prevention at 14-15 as the Strategic Mission

Borwell identifies the 50% dropout rate among British junior players at age 14-15 as the primary problem her program is designed to address: “we have a 50% dropout rate in players because academics start becoming very stressful and you start thinking well what’s the point of spending so much money and energy on tennis if I’m not going to go pro.” She draws directly on her own experience: “at 14 I actually wanted to quit as well — I wasn’t particularly enjoying it and I wasn’t aware of the American system. I just had a good social group and a good group of friends which kind of kept me playing.” The presence of an articulated pathway — “if you get to a certain level it actually doesn’t have to be that high, you have these different pathways available” — creates the forward motivation that prevents dropout at exactly the age when academic and social pressure peaks.

7. Sports Psychology: The Investment She Wishes She’d Made

Borwell reflects that sports psychology was available to her on tour but she chose not to invest in it because of cost pressure. “I know how important sports psychology is for tennis but even I didn’t pay extra for it when I was on the tour when it actually probably would have changed my career path — it was something that I needed but it was another cost which I just felt I couldn’t afford.” She frames the mental skills component as analogous to SAT tutoring: an investment with compounding returns that players and families systematically underinvest in because the short-term cost is visible but the long-term return is not.

8. Tennis Industry Pathway: LTA Level 1 as the Entry Point

For players who don’t want to pursue university (British or American), Borwell’s recommendation is the LTA Level 1 coaching badge — achievable in a weekend, available from age 14-15 — as the first professional credential in a tennis industry career. She works with partners like Cliff Geisel Tennis Management (offering courses covering multiple aspects of the tennis industry) and cites her own mother as a mini-tennis coach for 25 years, using younger volunteer players in an informal career pipeline. Her philosophy for the industry pathway: “say yes to everything, be incredibly positive and have a good work ethic, and then all these different doors will open.”

Actionable Advice for Families

• Start the pathway conversation with your child at 10 years old, not 16 — Borwell’s explicit target audience for Student of the Game is players 10 and up, because early pathway clarity prevents the doubt and dropout that peaks at 14-15 when academic pressure intensifies
• British and European players considering American college tennis should prepare for SAT exams even if they believe they have other strong qualifications — doing well on the SAT can save $16,000 in scholarship dollars and opens significantly more program options than is commonly understood
• Never choose a school based primarily on the current coach — Borwell and Stone are aligned that the coaching carousel is frequent enough that choosing a program for a specific coach is a structural risk that derails a disproportionate number of college tennis placements

INTENNSE Relevance

• International player pipeline: Borwell’s work placing British players into American college programs is the upstream pipeline for the post-college professional players INTENNSE is recruiting. British and Commonwealth players who go through the four-pathways framework and choose American university are exactly the player profile (college-trained, professionally motivated, globally aware) INTENNSE is building its roster around
• Four pathways as a player development model: INTENNSE could adopt and adapt Borwell’s four-pathways framework for the American market — articulating clearly what the INTENNSE league pathway offers for players between college graduation and traditional professional tour entry: competitive high-level team tennis, broadcast visibility, NIL opportunities, and financial sustainability that the futures circuit cannot provide
• Dropout prevention through visible pathways: The 50% junior dropout rate Borwell identifies at age 14-15 in the UK is a player base erosion problem that affects INTENNSE’s long-term talent supply. A league partnership with pathway education organizations like Student of the Game creates a visible beacon for developing players to see that a professional tennis career has multiple routes
• Sports psychology as infrastructure, not luxury: Borwell’s regret about not investing in sports psychology on tour is a warning for INTENNSE’s player welfare budget. The league’s format — high-intensity rally scoring, one serve, unlimited substitutions — creates specific psychological demands that standard sports psychology programs don’t address. INTENNSE-specific mental skills resources are a legitimate competitive advantage for player development
• SAT prep as an analogue for professional development: Borwell’s framing of SAT prep as a high-ROI investment that families systematically underfund mirrors INTENNSE’s challenge communicating the value of format-specific preparation to players who can’t see the compounding returns from early investment in rally-scoring tactics and one-serve strategy adaptation

Notable Quotes

“I would just watch them when they were 17 just about all the options and they’d be like, no I’m going pro — and then at 19 they’d come back to me after a year on the tour realizing it’s not glamorous, you don’t make that much money, it’s very lonely.”

“It’s not like the Premier League in soccer, you don’t get relegated down or promoted — some of the very worst universities for tennis and academics are in division one and some of the very best are in division three.”

“We have a 50% dropout rate in players at 15 because academics start becoming very stressful and you start thinking, what’s the point of spending so much money and energy on tennis if I’m not going to go pro?”

“At 14 I actually wanted to quit as well — I wasn’t particularly enjoying it and it was my friends and my tennis club which kept me going.”

“I know how important sports psychology is for tennis but even I didn’t pay extra for it when I was on the tour when it actually probably would have changed my career path.”

“Say yes to everything, be incredibly positive and have a good work ethic — and then all these different doors will open.”