It’s Never Too Late to Love the Game:
Tanya Robinson’s Tennis Awakening

At the “ripe old age” of 58, Tanya Robinson said to herself, “I bet I can play tennis.” 

The Pasadena IT specialist had never picked up a tennis racquet, but she’d grown up athletic and loved the beauty of Roger Federer’s game on TV. 

“Sports, always! Tennis, never! But I thought, ‘Why am I NOT playing this game?’” Robinson mused. “So I found some group lessons, started playing, and fell head over heels!”

Four years later, Robinson is now a PTR-certified coach for the Pasadena Tennis Association (PTA) and LoveSetMatch, both official USTA Foundation National Junior Tennis & Learning programs (NJTL). Tanya says helping others find joy in the sport has rejuvenated her and opened a personal “vibration of love for life” again. Robinson is also piloting a new five-week Red Ball Adult program in Pasadena starting in July.

“I jumped in with both feet. Tennis changed my whole outlook on life,” she said. “It revitalized me! It’s changed my body… I look better now than I did when I was 20 in terms of the cut of my jib… and it opened up a rabbit hole that led me back to passions I used to enjoy but had fallen by the wayside.” (Besides being an accomplished athlete, Robinson is also a singer who plays the guitar and drums.)

“When I first met Tanya four or five years ago, she was just starting to learn how to play,” said Esther Hendershott, USTA SoCal Director of Community Programs and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. “She had this total determination… like ‘I’m going to do this and I’m going to get good and I’m going to have fun doing this!’ As a tennis coach, she brings the right energy for people of all ages.

“And her smile… it goes on forever! I dare you not to smile when you are around her. We need more coaches who have Tanya’s ‘smile effect’!” Hendershott added. “I look forward to seeing what magic she pulls together with the Red Ball Initiative. I have no doubt she can do that.”

John Craig, founder of Performance-Plus Tennis on YouTube, an online coaching platform with 40,000+ subscribers and over five million views, met Robinson when she reached out to him for lessons and they became good friends. Craig is also a coach at Newport Beach Tennis Club and recently took time out of a family vacation in Italy to sing Robinson’s praises. 

“Tanya has a true passion for learning. To say that she’s obsessed with it is probably an understatement,” Craig said. “In the online coaching world, everyone knows Tanya and always tells me how lucky I am to be working with her. She’s more enthusiastic about tennis fundamentals and understanding than any other online student. I knew she’d be a really, really good coach!”

Tanya also worked for Craig at the Newport Beach Tennis Club for over a year, making the drive back and forth three or four times per week. 

“John and I got on like a house on fire!” Tanya laughed. “Working with him was such a great opportunity, I didn’t mind the travel. But that hour-and-a-half drive one way in California traffic? That was no joke. I’m glad I did it. But I’m also really glad I’m working only ten minutes from home now.” 

Tanya says she prefers to work with adults who are taking up tennis later in life, as she did. 

“I’m pretty much the poster child for inclusion,” Tanya said. “As a gay, Black, senior woman, I want people to realize these things aren’t obstacles in picking up tennis. 

“There’s such an emphasis on youth tennis these days, but I want to teach the parents of the kids I’m teaching, too! That’s why I’m really excited about Red Ball. Let’s get people playing at a level they can understand and participate in right off the bat,” Tayna explained. 

“Red Ball is waaaaay more fun than pickleball and it plays into athleticism more. And parents can play with their kids! I mean I’ve never met a kid who didn’t want to whoop their parents’ butts in a sport of some kind!”

Chris Fry, one of Robinson’s hitting partners, remembers meeting Tanya for the first time when she reached out to him on Play Your Court. 

“I was just getting back into tennis four or five years ago, and we started hitting,” he explained. “It was obvious that both of us liked training. Running drills and all. We both had an affinity for it, and I knew one of her personal goals was to become a coach. So I became her guinea pig! She’d go to lessons and then come back and teach me what she learned. She’s a natural coach!”

Tanya was born in Los Angeles and raised in Santa Monica. She remembers Title IX starting the year she graduated from high school. 

“I’ve loved sports my whole life, but I remember a time before Title IX when there weren’t as many opportunities for women to play. I started tennis at such a mature age, that now my philosophy is anyone can do it.

“If there’s anyone who is shy, you are coming with me. No hopers? I will take them. You don’t have to be afraid. Who cares what anybody thinks? Who’s not included? Whatever level you are. That’s how I roll.”

“Tanya is a very positive person and I’ve tried to mimic that in my life,” Fry said. “I’m not there yet. But she helps stabilize me when I get discouraged. She always sees the bright side of things.”

Tanya also credits tennis for bringing passion back into her life.

“Before I found tennis, the genesis of creativity in my life had been cut off for a while,” she said. “Because of tennis, I have the urge to perform again. There was so much ‘meh’ before I started playing tennis. It plugged me into a source of energy that now runs through my whole being. I never would have expected that to happen.

“We live in the illusion that life is predictable. Believe in trusting yourself,” she added. “Fear is gnarly, though. There is so much ‘I cannot’ and ‘Why should I?’ or ‘I won’t.’ It’s just fear. We make something up and then we believe it. But I have no place for that in my life. I do not surrender anything.

“I love talking to people about tennis! Can I just do this my whole life?”