Can a tennis star learn to play the sport backwards? A French Open wild card may be the answer

Akasha Urhobo, a 19-year-old tennis player from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has earned a French Open wild card despite developing her game in an unconventional way — learning to play at the net first rather than from the baseline. Jermaine Jenkins, a USTA national development coach and former hitting partner for Venus Williams, first noticed Urhobo in 2022 at an ITF World Tennis Tour event in Florence, South Carolina, when she was just 15. Her unusual net-rushing style, while effective in junior and lower-tier tennis, has required her to now work on building points from the baseline as she steps up to a Grand Slam stage.