Getting To Know Asiya Dair

Q: What made you want to attend Boston College?

A: Firstly, I was looking for strong academics. I was also looking for tennis. Here I saw that the tennis team was better than other schools that interested me. I really liked the team. My former teammate, Katya Vasilyev – she's Russian, so it was nice to have someone who speaks the same language as me. I also really liked campus – the fact that it's very compact and you're able to do a lot of things in little time. You can go from practice to the library or class, and it'll take you five, 10 minutes.

Q: What are your greatest strengths as an athlete?

A: Dedication and giving my best to reach my highest potential. In this team's environment, I learned it's not all about yourself. It's also about helping others get better and understanding how to help them.

Q: What's your best tennis-related memory?

A: When I was playing the Asian Championship. I won the semifinal. It was a really unexpected win for me because the other girl was high-ranked. I was down, and she had three match points. I came back and won. I feel like every time you come back when your opponent has a match point, that's the best feeling.

Q: How popular is tennis in your native country, Kazakhstan?

A: It became popular six, seven years ago when federations started to fund tennis academies and we started to build new academies. I was the first generation that was part of that. We had a Kazakhstan team. A lot of money was invested in it, and we were traveling around the world to compete. We have a lot of good players.

Q: You've had college teammates from London, Singapore and Finland. How much did it help to have teammates from other countries when you came to the United States for school?

A: It actually really helped me. I was the only freshman on the team when I came here, so my teammates were very welcoming. Any time I felt homesick or lonely, I went over to their rooms and talked to them. Several of them were from other counties. So we enjoyed not only American cuisine but also Chinese and Russian cuisines. It was definitely nice to have diverse teammates. Katya graduated, so now Dasha Possokhova has replaced Katya as someone I can speak Russian with. It's nice to always have someone who speaks Russian here.

Q: What are your career aspirations after college?

A: I'm not sure over the long run. But in the short-term, I want to pursue banking – investment banking in particular. I got an internship in New York with UBS Bank this summer.

Players Mentioned

Dasha Possokhova

Katya Vasilyev

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