ITA Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award
Anjali Devireddy from Johns Hopkins University has been named the 2022 ITA Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award winner.
On the court, Devireddy’s playing career has been noteworthy. She has spent the majority of her career playing at the number 1 position, was the 2021 Centennial Conference Player of the Year, First-Team All-Centennial Conference in singles & doubles, and is a multiple Centennial Player of the Week Recipient.
Devireddy’s off-court achievements are just as remarkable. She will graduate from one of the nation’s top Neuroscience programs in 3-years this spring, and currently owns a 3.93 GPA. She also scored an amazing 519 (96th percentile) on her MCAT medical school placement exam. She has been on the Johns Hopkins Dean’s List every semester, is a 2-time ITA scholar-athlete (soon to be 3) and has earned Academic All-Centennial Conference honors along with placing on the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll every possible year.
Devireddy is also extremely active in research at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center and on our undergraduate campus. During the 2020-21 school year her research in the Visual Thinking Lab created a coding program that is now widely used in the psychology department to conduct experiments on visual asymmetries. In the current year her work as a medical research assistant has looked at causes of neonatal seizures and how these impact brain development specifically related to epilepsy.
A member of the JHU Society for Neuroscience, Nu Rho Psi, Anjali has observed virtual Neurosurgeries, attended conferences, and volunteered at multiple events related Alzheimer’s Disease and other charitable causes.
On campus, Devireddy runs weekly tennis clinics for children and adolescents with autism through the Acing Autism Foundation. She did not let the pandemic slow her down as she asked to be assigned children to work with virtually through the City of Baltimore. From May to August 2020 Anjali provided grocery shopping and delivery for the elderly and vulnerable members of the Austin community through ‘Drive a Senior Northwest Austin’. Currently. Devireddy is also volunteering at the Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital, where she must assist in caring for and providing therapy for infants aged newborn to 3-years.
Davireddy is also a wonderful leader for the Johns Hopkins team, with a fighting spirit on the court that is a joy to watch. As a co-captain on our team, Anjali is our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Peer Educator and a Mental Health Awareness Leader.
A Letter From Head Coach Dan Pollock
Anjali,
Congratulations on being selected as the national recipient of the ITA Arthur Ashe Jr Award for Sportsmanship & Leadership! What an amazing honor with which to finish your college career, and something that should give you great pride in having truly earned.
You’ve led our team from the front this entire year, never letting your high standards slip while continually facing the pressure and limelight of the number one court. It was a joy to watch the feisty competitor you became between the lines, seemingly navigating the blend of fighting spirit and sporting class with ease.
You earned the respect of every opponent you played, and I sincerely believe they all felt similarly respected leaving the court.
Your on-court attitude and achievements are first rate, but to be so invested athletically while maintaining an off-court commitment to both excellence and selflessness makes you such a deserved recipient of this accolade. Your humble and unassuming nature would never allow you to boast about yourself, so I will!
You are a brilliant academic. Graduating from one of the nation’s top neuroscience programs in three years. Then there’s that MCAT score… Wow!
You are a future world class researcher. Already having worked in two of the world’s leading laboratories and having secured a position in a third for next year, it’s only a matter of time…
Your service-oriented, care-giving nature is inspirational. Your commitment to hundreds of hours voluntarily giving back to our community’s youth, both on our campus courts and in our medical center, is a true testament of character. I really have no idea how you managed your schedule and still were always 100% present and ready to go.
Your three years in college tennis have been quite the ride. Year one, season cancelled. Year two, a partial conference-only schedule. Year three, we certainly faced our fair share of adversity, but I sincerely hope that your first and last “full” season is one you will cherish as much as I will.
It was so much fun to watch you grow as a leader within the group and see how much your work ethic and drive bled into our younger players. In every conversation we had, your primary concern was always undoubtably, the success of the team when it would’ve been so much easier to focus on individual goals. We will all miss you, but we know you’ll continue to make us proud!
I can’t wait to see what you achieve in the years to come and thank you for setting such a strong example for others to follow. I couldn’t be prouder of you,
Dan