Six-year-old Sarai Aguirre was channel surfing when she spotted something that interested her.

That something was the sport of tennis.

“I saw (players) hitting a ball really hard and I thought ‘that looks like fun,'” she said.

The youngster is 10 now. The Tunnell Elementary School fifth grader has parlayed her enthusiasm for the sport into a $150 tennis scholarship.

Aguirre was one of 125 local youngsters who took part this summer in the National Tennis League Program, which the Southern California Tennis Association sponsors. Out of all those players, Aguirre was selected for the scholarship.

Her coach is Patrick Ortiz. Ortiz, who coached the Pioneer Valley girls and St. Joseph boys last school year, will oversee Sarai through the Future Champions Program this year, according to information sent about the youngster's award. Ortiz singled out Aguirre's “character, motivation, attitude and sportsmanship,” as reasons she earned the scholarship, according to the release.

Though she took the sport up at six, Aguirre dropped it for awhile when the instructor she had worked out with couldn't continue because of other committments. However, at age nine, Aguirre began playing tennis regularly again.

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She will participate in an area 16-and-Under junior tournament this weekend at the Minami Center. Play starts Friday. Championship matches are Sunday.

Young Aguirre has played T-ball, soccer and participated in ballet. However, she has settled on tennis, which is her sole extracurricular activity now.

“I've found something I really enjoy doing,” she said in the release. “My goal is to become a professional tennis player.”

The scholarship means Aguirre will be sanctioned to play in two USTA Junior Tournaments which take place later this year The rest of the scholarship money is designed to go toward tennis lessons and tennis equipment she may need.

The youngster is in the G.A.T.E. program at Tunnell, and her homework load is significant. Still, she said she has no problem sandwiching her three-to-four-days a week, two-hour tennis practice session around her homework, though she works some long hours at the latter.

“I don't really get that tired,” she said.

Besides, tennis gets her adrenaline going.

“I like tennis because it gets you motivated,” said Sarai. “It's like, ‘yeah, I hit it! I wanna hit it again..'”

The right-hander said her favorite stroke is the backhand, which she hits two-fisted.

She also very much likes the volley, though Aguirre admitted that she needed to be careful not to let the shot be an obsession for her.

Aguirre said she likes punching the overhead shot so much that for a time in workouts this summer, “That's all I wanted to do.”

When the slight Aguirre gets bigger and stronger as she gets older, those overhands figure to pack more wallop.

She said her serve “was pretty good.” But after a layoff following the summer workouts, “It's gotten sloppy, so I practice.” Aguirre said her forehand has been going well for her.

Her workout time is down from what it was. During the summer, she would average three-to-five training hours a day on her tennis during Ortiz's two summer training camps.

Though she has attracted attention as a singles player, “I would like to play doubles too,”she said.

After her morning workouts this summer, she would hit with players in Pioneer Valley High School's girls tennis program.

“They knew I was a beginner,” she said with a smile. “They took it easy on me.”

As for all that tennis, “It was the best summer vacation I ever had,” she said in the release.

Sept. 5, 2005