Noah Rubin trained his entire life to be a professional tennis player. Literally. He started playing as a 1-year-old. His parents bought a junior racket before Rubin was born and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their son, who trained throughout his adolescence at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in New York.
But seven years after turning pro and on the heels of a pandemic, Rubin has come to terms with what thousands of other players hoping to make a career out of the sport have realized: “If you’re playing tennis to make a living,” he says, “you’re playing the wrong sport.”
Since making the leap to the pros in 2015, sustained success at the next level has been hard to find for the 26-year-old. Years of toiling at the lower levels of the tour, dealing with injury setbacks and failing to make a breakthrough at a big event have worn him down.
