From Romania, Tunaru Finds Home at Alabama
2/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
By Scott Latta
UA Media Relations
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.-Pitesti, Romania is more than 5,000 miles from Tuscaloosa, Ala. Nestled in southern Romania, west of Bucharest and the Black Sea, the city is an important industrial and commercial center to Romania, central to the Romanian automotive industry and connected directly to the nation's capital by freeway.
On the surface, the two cities have little in common??one is home to numerous wineries and orchards and traces its human history to the Stone Age; the other is home to the University of Alabama and traces its history to the Civil War.
But underneath the economic and cultural differences, there is a link in the form of an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Alabama, Alice Tunaru, who is balancing the cultural shock of living in the US with the early success she has already experienced on the tennis courts for the Crimson Tide.
In her short time at Alabama, Tunaru has already established herself as a mainstay at the Nos. 5 and 6 spots in the Tide lineup and has already notched clutch wins for Alabama in singles play. Last weekend, Tunaru beat Iowa's Kayla Berry 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to tie Alabama's match with the Hawkeyes at 3, and beat Furman's Lauren Tomory in straight sets the weekend before that in the Tide's 4-3 comeback bid.
Though her early adjustments to tennis at Alabama have been smooth on the court, she said, the schedule as a collegiate tennis player has been tough to get used to.
"Tennis is great," she said. "I like that we have a schedule and the fact that [Alabama coach] Jenny [Mainz] pushes us because that is something I wouldn't do by myself. In Romania the schedule was not always set so I was confused when I was supposed to be doing something. Here, they help us train and condition and tell us what will help us on the court.
"I am not a very organized person when it comes to everything in my life so it was nice that Jenny is so organized because it helps me a lot. I would be lost without her schedule."
Since she was 7, Tunaru's life in Romania consisted primarily of going to school and focusing on tennis. Forced to give up swimming at an early age to concentrate on her game on the court, Tunaru attended a high school for athletes in Pitesti which required a physical test just for admittance.
The tennis team at Tunaru's high school, Sportive Pitesti, was smaller than that of rival schools, and until a few years ago, in order to compete the players were forced to travel to juniors tournaments versus international competition.
"Three years ago in Romania they started doing $10,000 tournaments that are international competition so we didn't have to go to another country to compete," she said. "Most of the tournaments were organized in Bucharest, about an hour from my hometown so I did not have to travel far to compete."
In preparation for her 2006 high school graduation, Tunaru began looking at American universities online, contacting coaches through the Web in search of a full athletic scholarship. School requirements prevented her from visiting Alabama before committing, forcing the Tide's Coach Mainz to recruit Tunaru based strictly off a CD the high school senior sent to Alabama.
Despite Alabama's athletic history and tennis facilities, Tunaru's decision to look at Tuscaloosa for school wasn't strictly athletics-based.
"College tennis in Romania is not very big," she said. "If you go to college in Romania you do not have time to do anything else if you want a good degree. I didn't want to quit tennis but I still wanted to get a good degree without giving up tennis so I started looking at universities on the Internet for tennis and to see how high they were ranked academically."
Now, with her spot in Alabama's lineup engrained and her adjustments to NCAA tennis underway, Tunaru continues to adjust to American culture. She likes soap operas, particularly "The Young and the Restless," enjoys learning English with international students, hates history but likes waffles ("But not Waffle House," she says), and watches movies on her days off.
Coach Mainz decided to room Tunaru with Alabama teammate Paulina Bigos this semester, and, according to Tunaru, the two have bonded so well that Bigos even took her with her to Chicago over Christmas to meet her family.
"I really like Inka (Bigos), we really get along well," she said. "Jenny made a good decision putting us together because we have become good friends. Neither of us have a car so we walk together. Sometimes our teammates give us rides but we don't always have the same schedule so we walk a lot.
"It is a lot more spacious here between buildings. In Romania, you can get almost anywhere in the city by walking but here you really need a car to get around. Also people are really friendly here. I was surprised the first few weeks when people were smiling and waving at me for no particular reason. It made me wonder if I knew the person or not. In Romania, people are friendly but they won't say ??Hi' to random people you see on the street."
Tunaru, a 4.0 student currently deciding on a major, hasn't seen her family since arriving in America??Visa requirements make it difficult for them to travel to the US??but plans on going home next summer to see them. Still, she says, despite the geographic differences she makes every effort possible to keep in touch with them overseas.
"I miss my friends and family but I need more time here to figure out if I want to stay in the US or go back to Romania," she said. "It is hard to talk to them because of the hour difference. They are eight hours ahead of us. We talk as much as we can over the Internet."
On the court, Tunaru's efforts to improve since arriving at Alabama last fall have not gone unnoticed by coach Mainz, who says that the freshman's improvement could propel her into a bigger role come SEC season.
"Alice has done a tremendous job of dedicating her game to constant improvement. Her game has escalated leaps and bounds since early fall. Alice has gained much confidence and is playing with more authority. Her groundstrokes are lethal and she is working hard to advance her transitional game. We anticipate considerable things from Alice as we approach the SEC season."
