Armenian Sports News Podcast · Andre Khatchaturian

Marina Davtyan Documents Difficult Journey From Armenia To Professional Tennis

·20 min

Andre Kachatourian of Armenian Sports News talks with former Liberty University tennis player Marina Davitian, who has also competed in the ITF and WTA. It opens with her early tennis path and how she moved into higher-level competition. From there, they move through her college years and the constant mix of training and school. Marina says she studied business administration as an undergraduate. She later earned a master's degree in sport management. After that, she applied for multiple jobs and got a quick response from John McEnroe's academy. The fast reply made the opportunity feel exciting, and she thought a big academy might work with her tennis schedule. The reality was much tougher. She describes the daily load of competing, practicing, eating, recovering, homework, and then working 40 hours a week. That routine left very little room to breathe. She says the balancing act became so difficult that she had to accept she could not always practice every day. The conversation also touches her last tournament in May, the NIT. Since then, visa status has shaped almost every decision. She is on F1 status and moving through OPT, so work has to come first. Marina has signed up for two upcoming tournaments, one a 100k and one a 35k in North Carolina and South Carolina. Getting into events is still part of the challenge because points matter. By the end, the frustration is clear: keeping a tennis career moving means constantly improvising around work, timing, and access.

As heard by us

A grounded tennis profile about school, work, visas, and the grind of staying match-ready.

Andre Kachatourian talks with Marina Davitian about a tennis life shaped by school, work, training, and visa pressure. The interview has its sharpest edge in her account of taking a job at John McEnroe's academy and assuming practice would still fit around it, only to find that…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

How you keep a tennis career alive when work, visa status, and training keep pulling in different directions.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify