Men's tennis fans are familiar with the name Lee: Captain Chris Lee '09 has been on the team since his freshman year. But when his sister Jenny '12 arrived at Brown in September, the women's tennis team got a Lee of its own, and the siblings, who already shared a close relationship, now have an even easier time supporting each other.
Chris first made a name for himself as a freshman, earning First Team All-Ivy honors in doubles. After suffering through a back injury his sophomore year, he was named Second Team All-Ivy last season in singles.
Head Coach Jay Harris says Chris "has been the backbone of our team since he got here," and captain Sam Garland '09 calls Chris "our top player this year."
Meanwhile, Jenny shows similar promise. She's currently recovering from a back injury, but "when she's healthy," Head Coach Paul Wardlaw says, "she's definitely going to be one of our top players." He says the Lees are "super athletic," adding that Jenny "always gives one hundred percent."
The siblings grew up in Sudbury, Mass., where they were introduced to tennis at a young age.
"When I was three, I was watching Wimbledon on TV, and I saw the award presentation part where the winner, Steffi Graf, held up the plate," Chris says. "I wanted one, but my mom gave me a plastic plate, so I got angry and threw it. That was the day I hit my first tennis ball with a baseball bat across the street."
As Chris set out to learn the game and win real tournaments, Jenny soon became interested in tennis too. "I watched him play, so I had the advantage," she says. "I knew what an approach shot and overhead were - way before I could hit them."
Chris explains: "I had different coaches and went through the mistakes first. I was the guinea pig."
But the siblings "never had a rivalry," aside from ping-pong, Chris says. They've always been supportive of each other, he says.
"Growing up together was a lot of fun. We have a good relationship," he says, adding that both siblings also played the violin and piano.
Jenny agrees. "It was so much fun," she says. "We did so many activities together. We once played a violin duet in a concert." She also mentions family apple picking, water gun fights and how Chris taught her to throw a football properly.
The Lees' mutual respect for each other is apparent from the way they describe each other both on and off the court.
"Jenny tries to hit really hard when she is hitting with me," Chris says. "I think it's really cute because she's such a small girl hitting as hard as I am." He also calls his sister's fist pumps cute, saying, "It's supposed to be intimidating, but she just looks really adorable on the court. I enjoy watching her play."
"She's very persistent. She's one of the few people who works harder than I do," Chris says.
He says he and Jenny share the desire to work hard at everything they do.
Jenny echoes her brother's words of admiration. "He's very motivated," she says. "He has a good attitude. He fights for every point. And he's really smart on court - he plays tennis with his brain."
The traits Jenny lists have certainly proved to be true, making Chris a valuable asset to the men's team. Chris is happy to represent Brown on the court. He decided to attend Brown after taking recruiting trips to many of the Ivy League schools, he says, and Brown stood out to him because of the team camaraderie.
"The guys on the team had so much fun at practice with each other and with the coaches," he says. "I could tell that so many guys were best friends."
Chris admits that he "had been selling (to Jenny) how awesome Brown was," but he says that he tried to refrain from pushing her toward any particular school. "I wanted her to find the school that would make her happiest," he says.
For Jenny, her brother's presence on campus was just one of the many things she liked about Brown. "I really like the campus, and everyone is so diverse," she says. "I enjoy being on the team, and the team atmosphere is great."
Wardlaw says Jenny's enthusiasm for Brown is apparent, explaining, "She always has a smile on her face, and she seems to love everything she does. She even gets excited about the cafeteria."
According to Chris, Jenny is known among her teammates for her love of dining hall food. "She loves eating Ratty food, like disgusting cheeseburgers and stuff, but she will never get big," he says.
Now that they are both on campus, the siblings say they hang out often. Jenny says Chris helped her adjust to college life and fulfilled his promise to take a course with her if Jenny decided to come to Brown. Both are currently taking COGS 0010: "Approaches to the Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science" together.
And of course, both siblings are also enjoying their experiences with the tennis teams. "Some of my best friends are my teammates," Chris says. "I'm going to be great friends with so many of them for many, many years to come."
One of those friends is Garland, who met Chris at a tournament in New Hampshire when they were about 10 years old.
"We played singles against each other and then afterwards we played doubles together," Garland says. "It was his first time playing doubles, so the joke going on in the team is that I taught Chris how to play doubles."
Chris went on to find much success in doubles, including back-to-back semifinal showings at the ITA Regionals the past two years, achieving a ranking of No. 25 nationally with Dan Hanegby '07 as a sophomore.
According to Harris, Chris makes "the perfect partner" in doubles because he is "easy to get along with, and everyone knows he is going to bust it every chance he gets - so there is a lot of trust from his partners that he is always giving his best effort."
Chris says that, in addition to the doubles lesson, watching Garland and captain Noah Gardner '09 - who advanced to the Regional doubles final together this month - when he was younger helped drive him to learn to play better tennis. "They are part of the reason that I am the tennis player I am today," he says.
While Chris's fellow members of the class of 2009 inspired him to be a better tennis player, they also influenced him off the court.
"They really opened my eyes and introduced me to life," Chris says.
"Their guidance really helped me develop into who I am today. I think the biggest way I have changed is that I value the people in my life so much now. There is really nothing more important in life than your friends and family."
That family, of course, includes Jenny, who in turn has only praise for her brother's personal qualities. "He's really funny - he makes hilarious comments all the time," she says. "He's nice and compassionate. He gets along with everyone."
Chris's teammates share Jenny's admiration. "He's a bubbly guy, and he loves to do everything," Garland says. "He's a great listener. I can have intelligent conversations with him and serious conversations. He's a very versatile guy."
According to Harris, Chris's personal qualities are what make him a good team captain. "Chris is just a great leader for so many reasons," Harris says.
"He is one of the nicest and most honest people in the world - everyone loves him. He is a brilliant student and a very gifted tennis player."
Harris explains how much the team depends on Chris, paralleling Chris's collegiate career to the team's results over the years. "(Chris) was a key player in singles and doubles in our 2006 Ivy League Championship," he says. "Then his sophomore year his back broke, and so did our team in some ways. We went 1-6 in the league - we had only lost two Ivy matches in the previous five years. Last year he battled back from his back injury and had a great year, and the team also had a great year, finishing second in the league."
Although Chris is currently recovering from another injury, according to Garland he has "done really well to pick up the organization of the team when he's injured." Garland adds that Chris has "devoted himself completely to Brown tennis," which is obvious from the pep talk e-mails he sends the team.
Chris's dedication also extends off the tennis courts and into his academic life. Last year, Chris earned Academic All-Ivy honors, and he said he plans on becoming a doctor in the future.
"I'm going to Mount Sinai School of Medicine either next year or the year after - I haven't really decided yet," he says.
"Since next year would be the last year I could ever really do anything I wanted, I may take a year off to maybe play some pro tournaments, travel, spend time with my mom's side of the family in Taiwan. If I could, I would like to stay in college tennis for a year, maybe as an assistant coach somewhere."
Chris says the reason he is keeping so many options open is because "I don't want to look back one day and say, 'I wish I had done this when I was done with college.' If I play on the tour for a bit and am not successful, at least I can say that I gave something I love doing a shot."
For now, Chris is enjoying his senior year.
Although Chris says he enjoys hanging out with his sister on campus, her presence "hasn't changed anything, really."
But Jenny corrects her brother: "It's more fun now."