{"id":156837,"date":"2025-08-13T15:16:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=156837"},"modified":"2025-08-13T15:19:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:19:28","slug":"eden-silva-on-how-sri-lankan-heritage-shaped-her-as-a-tennis-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/eden-silva-on-how-sri-lankan-heritage-shaped-her-as-a-tennis-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Eden Silva on how Sri Lankan heritage shaped her as a tennis player"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eden Silva on how Sri Lankan heritage shaped her as a tennis player<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Source :\u00a0lta.org.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Eden Silva has spoken about how her Sri Lankan heritage has shaped her as a tennis player and helped her through difficult struggles in her life.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Silva<\/a>, an accomplished singles and doubles player, began playing tennis at the age of six. She made her Wimbledon debut in the 2012 Juniors competition and enjoyed a run to the mixed doubles quarter-finals with Evan Hoyt in 2019. Now ranked as British No.8 in doubles, this year she reached the final of the\u00a0Lexus Ilkley Open<\/a>\u00a0alongside Vitalia Diatchenko.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But life hasn\u2019t always been easy for the 29-year-old who talks candidly about how her\u00a0journey so far has made her a stronger person.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Silva said: \u201cWhen I was 18 years old, I tore my ACL, which for a lot of people is a career ending injury.\u00a0 It was hard to have faced that at such a young age when I was just starting to climb up the ranks and feel confident.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt sort of came out of nowhere and all of a sudden I had a huge mountain to climb. That injury took a year and a half out of my career and out of my life. It was a tough time because I didn’t know really who I was without tennis. I look back now and even though it was an extremely tough time in my career, it definitely helped me build a stronger character.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Silva says her Sri Lankan heritage has played a key role in her life and how she was able to respond to this difficult time \u2013 citing her Nan and Dad as influential role models.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Silva’s Grandma on her Dad’s side is Sri Lankan and she and her Grandad came over to the UK in the early 60s and worked their way up from a working class family.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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She said: \u201cMy Nan has always been my hugest fan in tennis. Growing up she would come to all the tournaments with me and my dad, supporting me. She was always very loud!<\/span><\/p>\n

“She\u2019s a very independent, proud, stubborn woman \u2013 I think I got a lot of that from her and that’s a big part of Sri Lankan culture. When it comes to tennis, I think that’s a big part of being stubborn and having a sort of never, say, die attitude.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>That same resilience and stubbornness I see as one of my main character traits. My Dad also carries those traits. He was extremely tough on me when I was younger with my tennis and coached me pretty much my whole life. I’m super grateful for all his dedication and I appreciate the role he played in my life at such a young age.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I consider myself quite a strong young woman now, and I do think that it’s 90% down to who I was surrounded by when I was younger and when I was facing all those tough times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Silva says this strength has also helped her handle other challenges such as online abuse although she hopes that things will improve in the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hopefully if they see people like me playing tennis, being able to succeed and travel the world, that will give them a little bit more motivation and inspiration to start the sport.<\/span><\/blockquote>

Eden Silva on the impact of South Asian role models in sport<\/span><\/figcaption>
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\u201cEven now as a young Asian woman playing a sport, you do get a lot of hateful messages after matches and losses,” she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I think you sort of build a thick skin over the years. You’re always going to face racism and hate. Being someone in the spotlight you sort of have to put it to one side, but I think that I’m happy that I was able to be around strong characters over my life and that’s helped me deal with that in a better way\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a lighter note, another huge influence in her life has been Sri Lankan food culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said: \u201cFood and generosity are a huge part of Sri Lankan culture. You say you’re popping around to friends or family for 15 minutes and they’ve cooked a huge meal for you with about five or six different dishes. That sort of hospitality, kindness and generosity is a huge part of what has been instilled in me, and that’s helped me grow as a woman along the way. These values have been kind of implemented into the tennis side of things as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Silva is passionate about using her life and sporting experiences to promote and support the participation and involvement of people from ethnic minorities in sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A post shared by Eden Silva (@edensilva)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n