Commitment Profile
Blue Chip Senior Jessica Livianu Commits to St. John's
by
Gary Curreri, 13 January 2016
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Jessica Livianu's attitude towards tennis has been consistently positive as a result of her mother's involvement in her development.
The 17-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., teen started playing tennis at the age of four when her mother, Bogdana Romansky-Livianu, a former WTA player from Bulgaria, introduced her to tennis. To this day, Livianu's mother is still her coach, and she won't have to travel far to watch her daughter compete for
St. John's University next season.
"I believe as Billie Jean King once said, 'pressure is a privilege,'" Livianu said. "I enjoy the pressure, and it makes me tougher. I always say that I do not have to prove myself to anyone, and I am proud of who I am.
"I am also extremely grateful to be in the situation that I am in," Livianu said. "Because of my experiences I can grow as a better athlete and human being."
As she was growing up, Livianu said there were times when she didn't want to go practice even though the training sessions were only 30 minutes back then.
"My mother has always been a very calm and considerate human being," she said, "so she would find alternatives to get me to practice, such as having my friends play with me and signing me up for a lot of tournaments since I was very competitive."
When she first started playing tennis competitively, Livianu had her sights set on success. She trains about 5 days a week, 2-3 hours a day, including match play and practice. She also incorporates 1-2 hours of fitness 4 days a week.
"Honestly, I always dreamed of winning tournaments, but I never thought of what level tournaments," Livianu said. "I always thought of just holding the trophy.
"When I was younger, I was talented athletically, but all my friends - of which some were younger - were better than me," Livianu continued. "One of my closest friends to this day [Alexandra Sasha Kundin], we called her Sasha Sharapova because she was like a bulldozer on the court - no one could get through her."
Livianu, a senior who has taken online classes with Laurel Springs School since 2014, has a unique routine that she goes through prior to every match, and that routine involves her family.
