New LIFE Member Spotlight: Kristen Bleakley
Brandi Bratek
“Tennis has been a big, positive piece of her life for 30-plus years now. It is her
therapy...”
Kristen Bleakley started competing in 2023 in the National age-level tournaments. She entered the Level 1, National Senior Women’s Clay Court Championships as an unseeded player in the 35s and walked away with winning a gold ball in singles and a silver ball in doubles. She most recently earned another singles gold ball and silver mixed doubles ball competing in her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri in the 30’s National Hard Court Championships. She has her eyes set on competing for the US in 2024 on the World Team and with her accomplishments in 2023, she will hopefully be one of the players selected to represent the USA in Portugal next year. She signed up for a lifetime membership with the NWTO so clearly she plans on sticking around and competing for a while!
Growing up in Kansas City she loved all sports involving a ball. She began playing tennis at around five years old but also played soccer and basketball into her 8th-grade year. It was at that point she decided to focus solely on tennis. As a junior player, she won two hard-court national doubles titles and earned a top 5 national ranking in doubles and a top 75 national ranking in singles. She ended up getting a scholarship to compete at North Carolina State in 2006 where she played for two years before transferring to the University of Missouri for her last two seasons. She loved everything about the college tennis experience despite suffering from multiple injuries throughout her college career. The team environment and support offered to her by her teammates and both universities were the highlights of her college career.
After college, she took some time off from tennis. She moved to the panhandle of Florida where she initially started working at a resort and became the General Manager. During her spare time, she built her own rental property business called BellaMar and she is happy to finally be her own boss. Outside of tennis and her business she focuses on family, friends, and god. She enjoys photography and painting and has always had a fascination with tornados. She has an awesome dog and cat (that she is allergic to) and loves a good sunset paddle on the Choctawhatchee Bay.
Eventually, she started to play again and began competing in a local league. She met other women such as the multi gold ball winning Betty Wachob who talked with her about the National L1 tournaments and competing for the USA in the ITF World Championships. A gold ball and competing for the USA sounded pretty cool to Kristen so she began seeking out tournaments to play in 2023.
Tennis has been a big, positive piece of her life for 30-plus years now. It is her therapy. She is motivated more than ever to train so she can improve and grow as both a player and person on and off court. There is no better evidence of this than her cutting out the top of her shoe to provide more space for a painful toe injury instead of taking time off after she just won a gold ball so she could still practice.
She is truly grateful to be able to compete at a high level again and this is evident by how hard she is working at it. She wants to show younger generations of players coming up that if you put in the work, you can achieve your dreams. She believes that no matter how young or old you are, there is always something to learn and ways to get better.
“...A gold ball and competing for the USA sounded pretty cool to Kristen so she began seeking out tournaments to play in 2023...”
