Against all odds: Singaporean tennis player makes sport history

Sarah Pang’s story as a Singaporean tennis player competing on the World Tennis Tour is one most would have written off as impossible. She picked up tennis at age 19, with the vision of one day playing the WTA Tour. Fueled by a deep desire to engage her community in the greater pursuit of excellence, in 2015, Sarah decided to step away from her full time job to pursue athletics professionally. Not only did she succeed in her goal of making it to the WTA rankings, but she became the first ever Singaporean athlete to make the rankings with 100% crowdfunded financial support. In August 2019 at 34 years old, after five years of tour, Sarah debuted for Singapore on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings, making her the fifth Singaporean player in recent history and the eighth ever to make the WTA singles’ rankings. Four months later, Sarah debuted on the WTA Doubles rankings.

Prior to playing professional tennis full time, Sarah studied at Raffles Girls Secondary School, Raffles Junior College, and then went on to graduate with honors in English Literature from the National University of Singapore. After graduation, Sarah ran a copywriting business and then served as an in-house copywriter for the world-renowned Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy. Combining her understanding of business management and her passion for sport, Sarah worked as an executive at Sports Singapore, where she championed the Vision 2030 initiative, a master plan for the development of the sport sector in Singapore.

At the GSMP, Sarah hopes to develop a deeper understanding of sport administration in the United States and consider ways that similar strategies could be implemented in Singapore. She also hopes to build genuine relationships with women who are committed to making a difference through sport in their own communities.

Sarah will be mentored by Joanne Wallen, Sr. Director, USTA National Campus, and her team at the U.S. Tennis Association in Orlando, Florida.