Estefania Balda

The Ecuadorian Tennis Pricess

Estefanía, 17 years old, has not lived the life of an ordinary teenager. When she started the tenth Grade in school, she decided to quit her education. It was because tennis demands daily training and complete time. However, she kept studying at home.

She is the number 1 in the South-American ranking under 18 years, the same as she was in the ranking under 16 and under 14.

In 2003, she won the Orange Bowl doubles Championship, one of the junior tournaments most important of the United States. Early in 2004, Estefa won the championship in a degree A Tournament in Colombia, in singles as well as in doubles. The same year, she played a couple of profesional ITF tournaments. Once more, she won a tournamen in Colombia, again. in sigles and in doubles. These were her two first profesional tournaments. She also made it to the finals on Gioania, Brasil, reaching her best-ever ranking in the WTA.

This beautiful player, when she was part of the Ecuadorian team that went to the World Youth Tournament of Tennis, she won all her matches. Moreover, she plays every year in the Ecuadorian Fed Cup Team.

These are some facts that have linked Estefanía with the name of our country. Estefi has overcome the economical difficulties that do not allow her to travel to the International tournaments with her coach -his oldest brother Manuel, and has manage to be the best Ecuaadorian tennis player in 2004.

This new year brings a lot of expectations from Estefi. She just finished home schooling, she wants to reach a high ranking in her last months as a junior player, and she wants to improve what she did last year in profesional tennis, when she reached the 660 place in the WTA.