When I turned 30, I set a goal of visiting one new country per year. As a lifelong tennis addict who first got hooked during a family Wimbledon trip 25 years ago, our global sport has since given me a natural conversation starter nearly anywhere I travel.
Last year, I played on Romania’s red clay and asked locals about Simona Halep’s complicated career legacy. The year before, I chatted with Croatians about Marin Cilic and Iva Majoli’s surprise major title runs. While visiting El Salvador, I stopped by Marcelo Arevalo’s family cafe and attempted to communicate with his parents in my broken Spanish.
So when my partner Mikey began planning our 2026 trip to Kosovo, he stopped me in my tennis tracks. Though we’re known to veer off the American tourist grid, even this felt like a reach. Kosovo? Not one player came to mind. No ATP or WTA tournaments. No random tennis lore to reference. I was starting from ground zero.