There was a great story written by the Kansas University Athletics website by Ellen Balentine about former Weil Academy player Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum.

Adopted from Nanning, China and raised in New York, senior transfer Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum never thought she would end up in Kansas.

Bernard-Feigenbaum first picked up a tennis racket at the age of six, it wasn’t until age 12 when things got serious. She had always played other sports, namely soccer, but with encouragement from her grandma and dad, she chose tennis.

“My dad played in high school,” said Bernard-Feigenbaum. “He saw me playing, saw that I liked it and thought I should continue with it. I started playing in national tournaments and it just kind of took off from there.”

At the age of 15, Bernard-Feigenbaum left her home in New York to train at the Weil Tennis Academy in Ojai, California, just northwest of Los Angeles. However, she wasn’t alone. The New York native had her mom and sister along for the ride. After two years in Southern California, Bernard-Feigenbaum decided it was time to return home to train at the brand-new John McEnroe Tennis Academy.

“When I left New York, there wasn’t a place that had really good training,” said Bernard-Feigenbaum. “During my senior year (of high school), that’s when John McEnroe started developing this program. I told my dad I wanted to be back home for my senior year.”

The first talk of earning a scholarship to play tennis collegiately came when Bernard-Feigenbaum was just 14 years old. When she was 16, Bernard-Feigenbaum and her dad began the recruiting process knowing that there was a large possibility she could attend college on a tennis scholarship. Bernard-Feigenbaum spent her childhood visiting family in Indiana, which put Purdue University on her radar very early.

“I committed there the beginning of my junior year,” said Bernard-Feigenbaum. “I knew one of the girls who was already there. I trained with her at Weil and she talked about how good of a school it was. I liked the coaches and it helped that she was there.”

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