Lucia Peyre is a 17-year-old freshman but has already began to make her mark on the Cowgirl tennis program.
Peyre is from Las Flores, Argentina, where she and her love for tennis blossomed.
Before her college career, she was already a decorated amateur, ranking No. 27 in the International Tennis Federation. Peyre won four singles titles while competing in ITF juniors competitions, earned a pro title in W15K and competed in the French Open in 2019 and Wimbledon last year.
Peyre has thrived throughout the season and made her way up to competing on court three for singles play and has found a new doubles partner in Matina Zerulo. Before this matchup was made, she played with two-time All-American Ayumi Miyamoto.
“I think Ayumi is a good doubles player," Peyre said. "I learned from her about how to move on the court and at the net at the same time. When I started playing with Marti, we just started doing a different game style. I feel very good with both of them.”
At such a young age some may think Peyre has pressure to uphold her court status, but it’s simply the exact opposite for her.
“I’m enjoying playing here a lot, I think I’m doing well, but I think I can do much better and I’m very happy to be here and everyone is very kind,” Peyre said.
Before Peyre was a part of the Cowgirls, the team aspect of tennis was not present. While she played in the juniors tournaments, the worry of others wasn’t necessary, but now the focus is on playing as a team and taking care of everyone.
For every freshman, the start of college has challenges, but adding an athletics schedule on top of that makes the transition more complex.
“I was doing online school last year so it’s been pretty different,” Peyre said. “Athletics are pretty important for the university, so that’s pretty cool because when we’re traveling we have the help of our advisor or professors. They also give us more time to do the homework, so I’m very thankful for that.”
Each person has their muse or influence, and for Peyre it was Andrey Rublev and Iga Swiatek. Rublev’s offensive style and Swiatek’s solid movement on the court are taken into account when it comes to her own game.
“I like to play very offensive and aggressive with my serves, I’m always trying to play my first serve and I think that’s been important for my game,” Peyre said. “So yeah, maybe I’ve been similar to Rublev. I can’t compare myself with him but we can take physical skills and that I don’t like to play very long points.”