“The opportunity cost is too high to take this as a walk in the park,” says professional tennis player Sarah Pang. For the feisty sportswoman sitting across the table, time is a precious commodity – one that she is highly attuned to.

At 34, she has finally broken into the privileged singles rankings of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and is one decisive step closer to her dream of playing in the prestigious Grand Slam at the US Open – a journey that has led her to a deeper understanding of the “fullness of God” and His love for her. 

“It is a testimony in and of itself,” says Pang, who is currently ranked 1,259 and only the eighth Singaporean with a WTA ranking. Just 1% of all professional tennis players manage to break through onto WTA rankings every year.

Grit and faith

It is her determination and resilience that have gotten her to where she is today. A WTA-ranked professional tennis player since last month, Pang quit her job four years ago to become a full-time player on the professional circuit.

The obstacles she overcame in her journey have been well documented by the mainstream media:

A late start to the sport and then to the professional circuit where many choose to retire in their 30s. Financial difficulties that once left her with S$1.87 in her bank account. Stresses and pressure from travelling alone to faraway places (Dijbouti, anyone?) and even competing in tournaments without a coach or support team.

Her valiant and gutsy approach to these challenges has brought her far – such as seeking funds through crowdfunding and even resorting to sharing the cost of a coach with several other players. But beneath the grit attributed to Pang is her faith in God that has been “a big part of her journey”.

Pang picked up tennis at 19 years old and started playing full time only at 29. Photo courtesy of Sarah Pang. Photo by Juliana Tan.

“I know we are meant to be stewards, and to be salt and light out there, but through the course of this, I’ve realised – genuinely – more of God’s love for me,” says Pang.

“Sport is more than just physical”

To get a WTA ranking, players have to win three points on the International Tennis Federation World Tennis Tour. To earn one point, they have to win a match in the main draw of a US$15,000 event or qualify to play in the main draw of a US$25,000 tournament.

At the end of 52 weeks, the points expire and players start again from scratch. And in the last two years, Pang has come up one point short – twice.

Pang funded herself for 10 years, working multiple jobs to pay for her training, including stints in Spain where she bartered 12- to 15-hour work shifts for training in kind. In 2015, Pang set up a crowdfunding campaign and, today, is actively managing her own fund-raising.

Pang says: “When we’re pushed to moments like that, what does the Word say? Do I really believe, ‘God, You are exactly as the Word says You are’?

“I realised I cannot control the winning, but I can control my attention to process, my faithfulness and consistency.”

Sport is more than just physical, it is spiritual. And it’s a conundrum, she adds, noting that tennis and other sports are extremely self-focused and corporeal in nature.

“Like, your body is your only motto,” explains Pang, who majored in English Literature. “If I break my arm, there’s no replacement! Things like: ‘Am I eating enough? Am I sleeping enough?’

“It is that dialectic with the outward open space but also the inward worship and fellowship with Abba.”

“It’s very lonely out there,” Pang says. “My coping mechanism for that was to come back to my hotel room or my Airbnb alone and play a sermon and let God’s Word fill the air.

“All these little things add up; you can feel the physical manifestation of your needs. How do I hold my mind to the Word that says, ‘Take my yoke upon you for it is easy’ and live in that fullness in spite of how my senses are telling me otherwise?” Pang trails off.

“Senses that prevail and assault our corporeal being… Will we stand on the Word?”

One point. Two. Three!

In early 2018, Pang managed to team up with several other players under one coach. “We planned to make ranking by the end of the year (2019). A lot of it is a combination of being good enough and having a tournament strategy,” says Pang.

But God had a different idea in store.

In December 2018, early in the season, Pang got her first point at a US$15,000 tournament in Dijbouti, a tiny nation near the horn of Africa, when she won her match in the main draw.

Pang (left) with her doubles partner, Mitsumi Kawasaki, after their doubles match in Egypt. This was Pang’s first WTA doubles point in July 2016. That year, Pang fell one point short of making both the WTA singles and doubles ranking.

An unexpected second point came in May when Pang was given a wildcard to play in a US$25,000 event in Singapore – it was like being handed a point on a “silver platter”. Pang came back to Singapore, leaving the team and their training base in China for the match.

After that event, however, Pang’s coach urged her to stay on and play in a second US$25,000 event only one week later.

Tired, Pang was reluctant. “I just wanted to go back to China and train,” she recalls. But at the behest of her coach, Pang stayed.

Playing through the qualifying rounds of the tournament, Pang fell ill on the day that she had to play a match against a tall, aggressive Romanian player who “screams like Sharapova”.

“I didn’t even want to know which round of qualifier it was. I felt fever, sore throat and all the pi zui (mucus) coming down,” recalls Pang. “And I was ready to give her the match. Play easy, play light.”

So, in a long-sleeved shirt, with cap and visors, Pang hung on and played.

She lost the first set, 6-1, but won the second set, 1-6. In the last set, the players went into tie-break, where the match is played to 10 points.

It suddenly occurred to the feverish Pang that this could be the last qualifying round of the tournament. If she won, she would get the third point she needed for her ranking!

If.

“I tried not to think of the result. But it was very tight.”

Pang eventually won the set: 12-10.

“The really good stuff”

Looking back at how she made the rankings, Pang shares: “To me, that was God’s way of saying, ‘Eh, you think one year? I can do it in two weeks. I show you.’ Then boom! I made ranking!

“And it reminded me that He’s our God outside time ­­– He lives beyond that space. It’s what Ephesians talks about: God is in absolute control. Him turning up when He wants to turn up, and His timing is perfect.”

Doors to speak at corporate events have started opening up for Pang. This year, Pang was invited to speak at Google in Singapore. It is a privilege that she values, recognising and using the platform God has given her to be His vessel to touch hearts and lives.

Throughout this journey, however, Pang is fully aware of the unique position she has been placed in to speak of God. On her crowdfunding site and social media accounts, Pang does not just showcase her achievements, or the carefully curated aspects of her life. 

“My platform is really meant to build a legacy for our country and a pathway for the next generation. And I’m plugging it so hard because I know I can. I know God has given me the gifting and the ability to do that. So I’ll just run with it.

“It’s something I’m trying to use,” says Pang. “Because we are called into these ‘spaces’. Because of the nature of this tennis journey and how naturally difficult it is, it’s a great chance to live and test the Word.

“It’s a matter of staying the course and being faithful. And in the biggest challenge, to daily remind and envelop yourself with a sense of His love for you.”

In this interview with Pang, the fire and drive towards her goals is evident. But what stands out more clearly is the joy that expresses itself as a light in her eyes when she talks about God – who He is, what He has done and what she has learnt about Him by being with Him.

As Pang puts it so aptly in an Instagram Highlight titled A fighting devotion:

“To have gone through such a gamut
of travel, travails, and tapestry
only to find at the end —the “really good stuff”— how
incredibly gentle
tender
and near
this Saviour is.”

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