PRINCETON, NJ—His name is Fnu Nidunjianzan. but it is not the truth. Because technically, Fnu isn’t a name; This is an acronym. Fnu stands for First Name Unknown, which is how Tibetans who don’t follow the traditional first/last name structure prove their identity in order to fill out pesky paperwork like a U.S. visa.
Nitun Gyaltsen grew up in Tibet playing tennis. Or not quite. Because there are no tennis courts in Tibet. This is partly due to the altitude. Tennis balls often shrink/explode on impact, which makes playing tennis a bit tricky.
Fnu is called Top. Not because of the topspin, although that would be bad. No, this is because his sister Fnu Youjia likes Korean rapper Choi Shengxian (Cui Shengxian), who is known as TOP
Fnu became Top and he is still Top.
Maybe one day his name will become a household name. Or maybe not. Tennis is a tough business; only a handful of players have achieved enough to become part of the vernacular sport. What Dunedun Jianzan has achieved is remarkable. In the 50 years since the ATP Tour implemented the singles ranking system, no Tibetan player has received any ranking points. Nidun Kenzan has 20 titles and is ranked 869th in the world.
Nidunjianzan, 19, sits in a media studio on the basement level of Princeton University’s Jadwin Arena, thinking about his journey, which has only just begun. “Sometimes I do wonder, how did I get here?”
Nitun Gyaltsen’s father, Nyima Tashi, was a track and field athlete who later became a coach and later a tourism director. He and his wife, Gasheng, believe sports offer an important outlet for kids, which doesn’t sound like anything revolutionary in this country. This is a very strange thing in Tibet. It will not be until 2022 that a Tibetan athlete will participate in the Olympics. This stems partly from a long and complicated political history, with Tibet seeking independence from China for decades, but also from a mindset that values white-collar jobs over sport.
But Nyima Tashi sees sports as a mechanism to develop his son into a more well-rounded person, allowing him to explore the concept of competition that is rarely available in Tibet, and perhaps extend his wings to the country’s considerable outside closed borders. He didn’t force him into any one sport. Nidon Gyaltsen visited mainland China. He tried table tennis, swimming, badminton, and eventually very junior tennis. It was a choice between father and son – table tennis and badminton were almost prodigy sports in mainland China, while basketball wasn’t entirely suitable for the vertically challenged Niton Kiandzi. That leaves tennis.
Except for one minor friction: Tennis doesn’t really exist in Tibet. When Nitun Gyaltsen started hitting the ball, people would stop and stare at him curiously, wondering what on earth he was doing. Nyima Tashi personally built a simple court for his son to play on. He also named himself his son’s coach. “He tried to teach me, but he was the track coach,” Nitun Gyaltsen said. “He would tell me how tennis translated into a javelin, like throwing a javelin was like swinging a tennis racket. Well, not really.” Nyima Tashi quickly realized that tennis and Tibet weren’t going to work.
Nitun Gyaltsen is the first Tibetan player to gain ranking points on the ATP Tour. He has 20 and is ranked 869th in the world. (Courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
When most people think of Tibet, they think of Mount Everest, located in a narrow strip of Himalayas between Tibet and Nepal, on the country’s western border. Nitun Gyaltsen grew up in the capital city of Lhasa, which is on the other side of China and adjacent to China. There Nitun Gyaltsen and his mother moved to Chengdu, about 1,200 miles from their hometown. Tennis was and still is a growing sport in China. In 2011, Li Na won the French Open and became the first Chinese athlete to win a Grand Slam championship. But it’s light years ahead of Tibet, giving Nitun Gyaltsen, a six-year-old who plays for Chengdu City Club, a chance to train with under-17 players.
Fortunately, Timmy Allin arrived in Chengdu around the same time as Nidunjianzan moved to Chengdu. Allin was born and raised in Texas and played tennis at the University of Utah. A three-time All-Senior Scholar-Athlete, he received a fifth-year academic scholarship to study Chinese at any university in China. He chose Chengdu and while studying, he also coached tennis. He met Nitun Gyaltsen in 2011 when his family was looking for a Western coach to improve his skills.
Erin Long is struck by China’s unique focus on children. “Your path is almost chosen,” he said. “You go to school sometimes and play tennis a lot.” However, in Allin’s view, this does not necessarily make a great tennis player.
The sport requires technique and finesse, but also creativity and the ability to adjust on the fly. China’s fundamentals-driven approach has not allowed this side of the game to flourish. “I find that kids who stay in China tend to be more one-dimensional,” Ayling said. “They might hit the wall for a few hours and play on the baseline, but it’s almost robotic.”
Alin encouraged Nitun Gyaltsen, whom he considered to be truly talented, to broaden his horizons and invited him to his home in Dallas. “It’s kind of like tennis camp,” Allin said with a smile. He helped Nidunjianzan and his mother with the paperwork to obtain tourist visas (Nidunjianzan’s mother mistakenly told U.S. customs officials she planned to stay for three hours, when she meant three months), arranged a place for them to stay and They were introduced to American food. The subway is very popular.
Nidunjianzan’s extensive knowledge of the various races and cultures in the United States, coupled with teaching tennis, led him and his family to seek a more permanent home in the United States. They attended IMG Academy, a tennis academy founded by Nick Bolletieri in Bradenton, Florida before it became a multi-sport behemoth. Nidunjianzan enrolled in school at age 8 and received exception enrollment at age 10 before typical enrollment.
Young top Nitun Gyaltsen meets tennis superstar Pete Sampras. (Courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
Nidunjianzan and his mother moved into an apartment next to the courthouse. In the morning, he wakes up to the sound of tennis balls bouncing on the court, where he often sees the pros — Maria Sharapova, Sebastian Korda, Denis Shapovalov — practicing. For a kid growing up in a country that didn’t even have courts, it felt like some kind of tennis paradise.
Most days, Nitun Gyaltsen practices for two hours with other athletes and then spends another hour receiving personal coaching from professional group leader Pat Harrison. During this time, he worked with tutors to improve his English and took courses. His mother, Jiasheng, did not speak English. Nidunjianzan’s sister flew to Florida a few times a month (she was in college in Boston at the time) to help with groceries and other daily chores, but most of the day-to-day tasks were left to Nidunjianzan.
Neither returned to Tibet for several months, which meant that Nitun Gyaltsen and his father, and Gasheng and her husband were separated for several months. Strangely, this sacrifice contributed to Nitun Gyaltsen’s success as a tennis player. There is no place to hide on the tennis court, no teammates to blame, and no coach to offer relief. “Some people break down, some people stay the same, some people have the ability to improve under pressure,” Harrison said. “Top has always had the ability to handle pressure situations.”
However, Nitun Gyaltsen was also under such pressure. Although his parents never forced him to do anything, there was an implicit desire to split the family in half and move around the world to pursue tennis. In an instant, Nidun Jianzan felt it. Victory wasn’t coming as quickly as he was accustomed to, and he knew he needed to readjust. “I had to stop and think. There’s more to life than tennis and I couldn’t put everything into it,” he said.
Choosing one of the best academic institutions in the United States may seem counterintuitive for reducing stress. For Nidunjianzan, going to Princeton University made perfect sense. Well, at least once he decides he wants to go to college.
At IMG, there are basically two paths – go professional or go to college. Nidun Jianzan has been on the No. 1 track for years and plans to become a touring prodigy. But only a few truly reach the pinnacle of tennis from their teenage years. Nidunjianzan and his family made this decision after careful consideration. Although he has been away from home for many years, he has made more sacrifices to pursue tennis without any reward.
College tennis players can compete in professional tournaments, but can also work on kinks in their game while not yet having full-time jobs. For Nidunjianzan, it comes down to harnessing the power in his game – creating more reliable serves and improving his transition game. “You have the opportunity to continue to learn, fill in the holes in the game and take a year or two to get more experience,” Harrison said. “This trip can be lonely. Year-round, no real breaks. It’s very difficult.”
Nidunjianzan admits he needed a little convincing. Like any athlete, reaching a professional ranking is the ultimate goal, and taking detours at first can feel like taking a step backwards.
but it is not the truth. In addition to going 18-10 and earning first-team All-Ivy League status as the No. 1 singles player (and shouldering the inherent pressure that comes with that position), Nidunjianzan won his first career singles title last year. In Huntsville, Ala., unseeded Nitun Gyaltsen defeated three seeded opponents, including former NCAA singles champion Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, to win the title. He then earned a spot in the quarterfinals of a tournament in Germany and reached the round of 16 in events in Italy and Spain.
Nitun Gyaltsen missed most of the autumn with a wrist injury, although it gave him the chance to return to Tibet for the first time in four years and hope to build on his achievements a year ago this spring. The top players in the collegiate rankings receive wild cards to ATP events, and for Nidunjianzan it will be the perfect transition from where he is now to where he wants to be. “I think Chinese tennis has not reached the level it should be,” he said. “That’s my dream: to be the player who makes the dream come true.”
(Illustration: Eamon Dalton/ Competitor; Photo: Courtesy of Princeton University)
