After graduating high school, most students with college aspirations go straight to higher education. Others take a little time off to find direction.
Jacqueline Cako, however, took a year off to play tennis … professionally.
The freshman from Brier, Wash. finally became a Sun Devil this season after delaying her acceptance and scholarship for a year so she could play professional tennis as an amateur.
“She saw what the professional life is like, and she wants to play professional tennis,” ASU tennis coach Sheila McInerney said.
According to NCAA rules, Cako had to follow specific rules in regards to tournament competition if she wanted to remain eligible to delay her scholarship and compete for ASU. Athletes who compete as professionals forfeit NCAA eligibility.
The decision to delay coming to ASU was the best one for Cako. During her year playing as an amateur, she went through many changes including a new coach and an adjustment of most of her strokes.
Cako spent last year competing in various tournaments across the U.S., but also had the opportunity to play internationally.
Over the summer Cako traveled to Kristinehamn, Sweden to compete in an International Tennis Federation tournament.
“It was a last minute decision to go there,” Cako said. “I hadn’t been playing well at all.”
Cako was favored to win, but fell in the finals to Slovakia’s Lenka Wienerová. She lost her first set 2-6, won the second 6-3 and then lost the final set 6-7.
Despite the loss, she was still pleased with how far she made it in the tournament.
“It was my best one,” Cako said. “That’s the furthest I’ve ever gone in a [$25,000 tournament] and it put my ranking up.”
Cako’s ranking has jumped about a hundred positions since the end of that tournament. Her current Women’s Tennis Association ranking is 374, as of Sept. 29.
Cako traveled to Sweden with the tournament director Erik Stenberg. She met Stenberg while playing in the Fort Walton Beach tournament in Florida, and he invited her to play in the $25,000 Kristinehamn.
Her relationship with Stenberg gave her an advantage over other players that traveled to the tournament in that she didn’t have to pay for court time or a place to stay.
Stenberg is a native of Sweden, so Cako stayed with him, and she got to practice on the courts as much as she wanted to since she was with the tournament director. In return for the free court time, she had to help with the younger children’s group.
The biggest challenge playing in Sweden was adapting to the red clay courts and learning how to move on the slick surface.
“Playing on clay is so different,” Cako said. “I had some slow starts in a few of the matches.”
Every day in Sweden, Cako drove by a huge Picasso sculpture that was five minutes from the tennis club. The sculpture became a superstition and source of her inspiration. She currently has a picture of the sculpture hanging in her room, and plans to take it with her when she travels with the team to tournaments and competitions this year.
Although she has been out for the first part of the fall season due to an illness, she is expected to return before the semester is over.
Cako is excited to start playing again. She traveled to the Cal Nike Invitational with the team last week, but wasn’t cleared to play at that time.
“It feels great to actually be able to play,” Cako said. “The last week was boring. I was so antsy because I couldn’t do anything.”
McInerney is expecting Cako to do well this year once she is back in shape and on the courts.
“She is one of the best recruits in the country,” McInerney said. “She has played against some good professionals. I think she expects to win.”
Reach the reporter at nklauss@asu.edu
