What a year it's been for Nevada native Asia Mohammed. A steady flow of top finishes has brought her to a USTA National singles ranking of five and the number one spot in doubles (as of 10/4/2007). And in between she managed to claim - - unseeded and going through the qualifying - - a $10,000 USTA Pro circuit event in Houston.
Sixteen-year-old Asia Mohammed is the product of Andre Agassi's Las Vegas Academy, where she trained until last year. She was consistently ranked in the top 10 through her junior tennis career, winning national doubles titles in the 16s when she was 14. She has managed to place in the top four of national events consistently since 2004, though her real breakout came in the middle of 2006 and has not stopped since.
From the spring of 2006 to the summer of 2007, Asia Mohammed was in the finals of the eight national events, picking up the wins at half of them. She can adapt easily to different doubles partners, though she and Britney Augustine have won five doubles crowns together, including the 2006 & 2005 USTA National Claycourts. Asia also won the Claycourts and Hardcourts in 2004 with Krista Damico.
Asia Mohammed garnered a lot of attention this summer at the U.S. Open when she and Kristy Frilling, whom she had lost to in two doubles finals this year, team together for the first time and became the last standing American doubles team in the juniors. They made it to the semifinals where they lost an incredible match that couldn't really have gone much closer than the final 7-6(8),7-6(4) final score. Coming just two weeks after making the finals of the doubles at the Girls 18 Nationals, Asia made the statement that she was a talent to be reckoned with.
Asia and I sat down in Berkeley at the new home of the Girls 18 Nationals, the Berkeley Tennis Club, and talked about her outstanding year.
by Marcia Frost