What’s the racquet about Candy Zhang?

Off the court, junior badminton player Candy Zhang has a relaxed and cheerful appearance. One might not even know she was a badminton prodigy just by passing her on campus. Sophomore Jonathan Liu says, “I’ve known [Candy] for many years now, but I only found out last year in class, and even then I thought they were kidding. I’ve never seen her act arrogantly or boast about it.”

Just because people may not recognize her as the reigning two-time CCS champion doesn’t change the facts: her two CCS seasons were nearly flawless. She went undefeated and dropped only two sets across both seasons. She is favored to go for a record-tying third title this year. Zhang says, “There are a lot of people who expect me to win, so there’s more pressure. There are new players coming in, and they all train really hard, and it’s a bunch of mind games. I’m just training hard.”

Last year’s CCS championship match, against Angela Lin of Gunn High School, was a particularly memorable match for Zhang. She says, “[It went to] three games, and it was pretty close. I was really tired, and I wanted to repeat as CCS champ in singles, so that added to the pressure.” Zhang took the first game 17-16. However, she lost the second game 9-15, but manages to pull through with a 15-13 victory in the third.”

One of Zhang’s strong points is her height. Standing at nearly 5-foot-8, her height gives her an advantage over many of the shorter players. Zhang says, “I’m taller than most of the people that I play, so a lot of times they don’t expect it when I cut it off.”

Zhang started training when she was seven. She says, “My dad played badminton in college, and he would play every Saturday with his friends at a community gym. Occasionally, he would bring me along and I thought it was really fun. I actually started in the backyard, and then, after a while, he decided that I should actually learn how [to play], so I started at a club in Fremont and [practiced] five days a week after school. It was pretty crazy.”

She participated in her first tournament at age eight. Given her young age group, there was only one other girl to play against. Her first win came in that tournament but so did her first loss, when she teamed up with the other girl to play doubles against some of the bigger kids. “[We] got killed, [but] we got second [out of two] because barely any people were playing badminton back then.”

Looking back at that tournament, Zhang remembers admiring the older kids. “I used to look at the U17 and U19 kids and marvel at their skills and wonder if I would ever get there. And now I’m U19.”

Zhang still puts in considerable time at the gym despite five AP classes and a number of extracurricular activities, like being co-president of Math Club and a member of the Aragon Robotics Team. She says, “[These last two months,] Robotics has had build season, so I’ve been practicing four or five days a week, but usually I practice six days a week for one or two hours a day. [Practices] are a combination of a lot of things. They’re usually divided by different days, like ‘die days’ will be mainly drills and repetition, [while] some days are just games. The last half hour of every practice is conditioning.”

Zhang’s presence has a profound impact on the team. Sophomore badminton player Justin Chan says, “Our team sees Candy as a prodigy. Her skills are unmatched and many enjoy being in her presence. Either playing against her or even with her, there’s a lot to learn, and she sets an example of how far training can improve anyone’s skills.”

Zhang’s future regarding badminton remains a little uncertain. She says, “[The Olympics] were my dream for a long time, but I’m just realizing that 2016 isn’t that far off, and I know people who have gone and they’ve all spent many years training for it. So if I were to train for it, and that’s a big if, it probably won’t be for 2016. I guess it really depends on what happens in the next two years.”

She concludes, “ I definitely want to keep playing in college; I just don’t know what level I want to maintain yet.”