Sarah Pang, 40, Returns to Professional Tennis with Joy and Purpose

At the age of 40, Sarah Pang is making a surprising return to professional tennis, a sport where most athletes have typically retired. Pang, who became the eighth Singaporean woman to enter the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings in 2019, is not merely focused on climbing the rankings; she aims to reconnect with the joy of playing. After taking a year off to care for her ill mother, she reflects on her renewed perspective on the game.

“When you step back out on court after a monster year like that, the playing comes with a different lens,” Pang shared in a recent interview on CNA’s A Letter to Myself podcast. “I think because you’ve healed so much more of your inner child – for me, it has been the joy of realizing I’m not playing to prove anymore. I’m playing because I want to. I’m playing because I feel joy. It’s actually fun.”

Challenging Norms in Sports

Despite the common belief that athletes peak in their 20s and early 30s, Pang argues that advancements in sports science allow athletes to compete well into their 40s. Her regimen includes a variety of activities such as strength training, osteopathy, pilates, meditation, and therapy. “We’ve just not, in Singapore, caught up with that awareness. So, for me, 40 is still young,” she stated.

Pang’s journey in sports began with badminton, where she excelled as a junior. At 19, she transitioned to professional tennis, encouraged by her father, who believed both tennis and golf offered athletes greater autonomy. Her decision followed a family crisis; her mother had suffered a massive stroke when Pang was 18, and her father had retired from teaching. The responsibility of supporting the family largely fell on her older siblings, prompting her father to offer her the chance to pursue a professional career.

“I joke all the time – I wish I’d chosen golf because it has a longer lifespan, but no regrets, and it’s just been such a tremendous journey,” Pang said. She faced challenges early in her career, feeling ashamed to reveal her transition from badminton to tennis to her former teammates.

Resilience Amid Financial Struggles

After graduating with a degree in English literature from the National University of Singapore, Pang committed to tennis full-time in 2014. To fund her training, she worked three jobs and borrowed money to attend the Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy in Barcelona, where she also served as a dormitory warden. This experience, while daunting due to the age gap with her younger peers, was invaluable. “I just knew that I was there to play and to try and become as much of a player as I could be,” she recalled.

In 2018, Pang faced one of her lowest moments when she had only S$1.87 in her bank account, forcing her to shorten her season. The financial burden of competing internationally can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, making fundraising a crucial yet uncomfortable task in Singapore’s culture of self-reliance. She recounted her anxiety over sharing a fundraising campaign video with a security guard, who unexpectedly offered her S$10 and encouraged her to pursue her dreams. “It’s moments like this that made me realize, wow, it’s so deeply humbling,” she said.

Finding Growth Through Adversity

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 provided Pang with an unexpected opportunity for personal growth. As international tennis tournaments were canceled, she found a chance to reassess her priorities. “While COVID reset all of that work, it also forced perspectives of internal growth that, had I stayed on that hamster wheel, I don’t think I would have had the chance to uncover,” she explained.

Pang reflects on her journey not just as a competitive athlete but as a person seeking authenticity. During her first professional tournament in Jakarta, she became aware of the bustling life outside the tennis world, realizing how much she had been focused solely on competition. This led her to create her brand and social media presence, tenniswithsarah, to share her experiences with others.

Currently, Pang is concentrating on training and fundraising as she prepares for a series of warm-up tournaments. “I’m looking forward to the real chunk of tour that will start at the end of the first quarter, beginning of the second quarter. My focus till then is dual – to keep preparing my body and to raise enough support to enable me to give this next season of tour my best shot,” she said.

As she contemplates her goals for the future, Pang emphasizes the importance of her journey over specific rankings. “It’s easy to just say: ‘Oh, I would like to hit so-and-so ranking at this time.’ But to me, that’s private, but that’s also very boring,” she remarked. Her deeper aspiration is to play freely, managing the pressures of sponsorship and expectations while enjoying the sport she loves.