Julie Thu

Sarah Flood, a new member of NWTO, has had a lifelong passion for the sport of tennis. In many ways, it has been her saving grace. Life has thrown her many curveballs and seemingly insurmountable obstacles along the way, yet she has always sought to find the joy in life – and tennis has been a big part of that.

Sarah grew up in Caversham, England, and was initially introduced to tennis at age 9 through a sports camp at a local college. One week later, she entered her first tournament, and the rest is history. Sarah’s love of tennis continued to blossom the more she played, and she thrived on competition and put in many hours on the court to hone her tennis game. With persistence and time, she progressed through the UK’s LTA junior rankings, all the way from the local level to eventually making the National team at age 16. The chance to play in Junior Wimbledon was one of many memorable experiences of her junior career.

Not long after studying her A levels in England, Sarah received an email from a friend who was studying and playing tennis in the States at the University of Houston (UH). Through her friend’s help, Sarah was able to interview with the UH coach and send her tennis video and was ultimately offered a scholarship to play D1 tennis at UH. She was thrilled for the chance to continue her studies in the US and play college tennis at the same time.

Just before leaving for Houston at age 18, Sarah’s mom realized something was terribly wrong with a mole she had been ignoring on her foot, and after a biopsy found out that it was positive for cancer - melanoma. After surgery and a skin graft, the doctors were confident they had removed it. Sarah headed to Houston for her freshman year at UH and had a great year exploring her new independence in the States and enjoying the community of competing on a college tennis team.

As she was heading home after her first year, she received the worst news possible – her mom’s cancer was back and had metastasized to the brain in the form of several tumors. Her mom’s health deteriorated very quickly, and that summer she watched the person she loved most in the world slowly slip away. Just as her sophomore year was  beginning, Sarah’s mom passed away. Sarah’s second big life curveball came a few days later on the day of her mother’s funeral, which also happened to be the day of the 9/11 tragedy. While driving, Sarah had a head-on collision at 60 mph and woke up five days later in the hospital. Sarah spent over eight weeks in the hospital suffering two collapsed lungs, a pelvic fracture, a broken right hip, broken ribs, broken upper and lower jaw, internal bleeding, and burns and was given a 50% chance of survival. Thus began the fight of her life.

Six months earlier she had hopes of playing tennis on tour one day, but now the odds that she would ever step foot on a court again were not in her favor. But Sarah is a fighter and a believer and the goal of playing tennis one day again inspired her to prevail. “Tennis taught me that negativity and sadness were just not in my nature. It was always better to be the optimistic, glass-half-full person”, says Sarah. After one full year and many long and painful days of rehab, all while mourning the loss of her mom, Sarah was able to once again don a UH uniform and play doubles for her team. Getting back out on the court was always her driving force, and Sarah succeeded. Due to her hard work in overcoming adversity, she received the ITA NCAA D1 National Cissie Leary Sportsmanship award and has been an inspiration to many.

Today, Sarah is a USTA Elite Teaching Professional at the Houston Racquet Club, home to the National Clay Court Championships, and is chair of the Junior Team Tennis Committee for the City of Houston. Over the years, she’s had twenty-eight surgeries, including a recent hip replacement due to the wreck many years ago. Nonetheless, she overcame all of these obstacles and has a wonderful zest for life, saying, “Tennis taught me independence and respect for others, and that there are no boundaries, only possibilities. Tennis has been my life, and it has helped make me, me.” 

Sarah has written her memoir in a book titled Love All and has pledged to give the proceeds towards funding free skin cancer screenings and to funding sails above playgrounds to provide shade for kids. People can purchase the book on Amazon.