when she and her cousins were taken hostage at gunpoint. quite often that kind of situation wouldn t have ended well, but fortunately it did. at that point, her mom decided she was going to bring her to the u.s. and raise her here, by which point she was aspiring as a tennis player, having wanted to be a ballerina. but she decided to pursue tennis. there s also a tennis connection to something else that was really traumatic in her life, because in the haiti earthquake two or three years ago, her father who was still living there, was actually trapped in his home that collapsed. he managed to crawl out after i think about 11 hours, but he was really badly injured. he had broken both his arms and legs, seven ribs, punctured lung. a family with connections to her club paid to have him treated in florida. she said last night if it wasn t for that, he wouldn t be here. she says she would love to see young people i want to be a role model, good for other young people when they watch her