Max de Vroome is achieving American Dream with USC tennis

As the season moves toward the heat of conference play, the men’s tennis team is also getting ready to say goodbye to its only senior: Max de Vroome.

The 6-foot-5 native of Vught, Netherlands, came to USC in 2012, a season after the amazing ride that saw the Trojans win the NCAA crown four years in a row. After clinching the 2014 Championship in his sophomore season and playing in a brand-new tennis stadium early this year, de Vroome, a captain, is seeking another strong season with one of the best teams in the nation before finishing his degree in business administration.

De Vroome was already successful as a junior player, winning a couple of ITF titles and reaching the quarterfinals at the junior French Open in 2012.

“Honestly, I didn’t know much about college before I visited [USC],” de Vroome said. “I heard USC had a great team. So I was visiting multiple schools and as soon I stepped on the campus … it’s just so pretty here, so nice to walk around. It’s like paradise.”

De Vroome was drawn by the continuity of success and a strong coaching staff.

“The team is great; the coaches are really good,” de Vroome said. “We’ve had a great program over the years. That was a big thing for me, that they weren’t good one year but being consistently good. That says something about coaches.”

Before committing to the Trojans, de Vroome had to make a harsh decision. As NCAA rules treat student-athletes as amateurs, it would have been impossible for him to turn pro and play at the collegiate level at the same time.

“It was a tough choice for me to make,” de Vroome said. “Back home we don’t have the college system. But especially for a [men’s] tennis player, the average age in the top 100 is around 28, so making that choice when you’re 18 is rough. I think college here is the perfect solution. You get a degree, and you get to play tennis every day.”

Being the only freshman on the team and away from home, the first year as a Trojan had a lot more challenges to offer in addition to the ones he faced on the court.

“You come into the community and the whole team is like family,” de Vroome said. “I was the only freshman, but it really didn’t feel that way because you’re hanging out with rest of the team so much and they really support you and help whenever they can. I was used to traveling because I traveled as a junior player, but I had never been away from home that long.”

In addition to this new experience, the initial adjustment to a different country also served as a challenge: there was a new language, a new culture, a new way of life.

“My first semester was tough; everything was in English,” de Vroome said. “The cultures are very similar in a way, but there are also small differences everywhere. It takes a couple of months to get adjusted, but you’re kind of living in a dream.”

Tennis provided him with one of the best memories from his journey at USC: winning the 2014 NCAA championship.

“I don’t think I will ever, ever even come closer to that,” de Vroome said. “It was such a magical moment. The whole team is there, jumping around, it felt like living in a dream for a moment.”

De Vroome picked up a racket for the first time when he was five, and he never looked back. But he’s not the only one in the family to have a passion for tennis. Indy, his 19-year-old younger sister, has already turned pro and is ranked in the top-400 of the WTA rankings. At this young age, she has already won three singles and five doubles titles in the ITF circuit.

“My mom was always really into sports, really competitive, so we were sports-minded,” de Vroome said. “My brother started to play tennis, and I was two years younger and I was jealous and I wanted to play with him because I looked up to my big brother. That’s how I got into it and started to play more and more and got competitive against each other. Then my sister started to play, and nobody wants to lose against each other. I think the competitiveness into it got it rolling.”

As far as inspirations go, de Vroome’s idol on the court is 17-time major winner Roger Federer, known for his competetive yet composed behavior on the court.

“I just love his classiness, how he walks on the court every day and does his thing and walks away,” de Vroome said. “He makes it look easy.”

But de Vroome still turns back to his family for their support and inspiration.

“My mom, my brother and sisters are huge role models for me,” de Vroome said. “I really look up to them, how disciplined they are, how hard they work everyday. They make me stay disciplined too.”

While he’s focused on his final season, de Vroome is also keeping an eye on his future, which could lead to a career either on or off the courts — or both. De Vroome has an internship this summer at Guggenheim Partners in Santa Monica.

“I’m going to do that and see how it goes from there,” de Vroome said. “Maybe I’ll get a full-time offer from them. Maybe I’ll go pro.”