TEXAS

AAPI Heritage Month: How NJTL Essay Winners Andrew and Aaron Lim Balance Tennis, School, and Community

Binh Tran, Carmen Callies | Mayo 27, 2026

ARLINGTON, Texas — Beyond the daily grind of practice, tennis bridges brothers’ Andrew and Aaron Lim’s family heritage with high-level time management, routinely placing them at the center of remarkable community milestones.

The brothers, who attend Martin High School in Arlington, both discovered their passion for the sport by following in the footsteps of their older sister, a junior at the University of Texas at Austin. Andrew, an 11th-grade junior, and Aaron, a 9th-grade freshman, have since turned tennis into a lifestyle, balancing grueling 25-hour weekly practice schedules with varsity team commitments, orchestra, and high-level academic pursuits.

In 2022, their dedication to education and writing earned them state recognition when both brothers were named winners of the USTA Foundation NJTL Essay Contest for USTA Texas. Aaron claimed the top spot in the Male 12-and-under division, while Andrew won the Male 14-and-under category, after answering a thought-provoking prompt about how the sport builds confidence, character, and teamwork to drive youth closer to their career dreams.

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Q&A: Meet Andrew and Aaron Lim

USTA Texas: How did both of you first get involved in tennis?

Andrew: We have an older sister who played tennis at Lamar High School. When I was in seventh grade, I started playing at my junior high and loved it from the start. I began taking lessons the summer before seventh grade, and by the middle of that year, I started going to the Kiest Tennis Center. That’s where it really took off.

Aaron: When my brother started going to the DTEA chapter, I was influenced to start going as well. I’ve been going consistently since the sixth grade.

USTA Texas: You mentioned that your parents don't play tennis. How do they support your passion?

Aaron: When we first started out, my mom and dad would drive us down to South Dallas where our chapter is located. My mom primarily attends our tournaments, but my dad watches whenever he is off work.

Andrew: Our schedule was incredibly tight. When Aaron was in eighth grade, he had school and track practice. My mom would pick him up with pre-planned lunches so we could eat during the 40-minute drive in 5 p.m. traffic. She would wait two hours during our practice, watch us, and then drive us home around 9:15 p.m. She did that straight for three or four years before I started driving.

USTA Texas: Tennis can require a massive time commitment. How many hours a week do you spend on the court, and how does it affect your life outside of school?

Andrew: For school, we practice from 1:30 to 4 p.m. every day. Then we have two hours at our tennis center, plus my private lessons. It comes out to around 25 hours a week for me. Because our varsity tournaments are during the school day, we have to plan ahead with teachers for coursework and tests. It has drastically improved our time management and dedication.

Aaron: It forces us to build our character because we have to make a schedule around tennis and consciously make time for everything else. I actually had to step away from playing viola in the orchestra this year because I couldn't fit both into my high school schedule.

USTA Texas: Andrew, you spoke about the importance of the mental game. What is the best piece of advice a coach has given you about handling failure?

Andrew: In my early career, I would get stuck in my head and beat myself up during matches. My summer coach, Clint Laukhuf, who is an ex-Marine, completely changed my mentality. He asked me: "If you knew you were a hundred failures away from success, how fast would you want to fail?" That changed my perspective.

"Now I’m not afraid to fail, because you learn something new about yourself and life with every loss."

USTA Texas: How do you celebrate your cultural background, and does that heritage impact your tennis community?

Aaron: We grew up in America, but we take occasional trips to our parents' home country of Malaysia, and are very close with our relatives in Asia. Our family actually hosts a Malaysian-Chinese New Year celebration for the Malaysian community at our church every February. The adults bring red envelopes with money, and the kids do a talent show—like playing instruments or performing the Malaysian folk song Rasa Sayang—to receive them.

Andrew: Culturally, we have a super tight-knit community where we call everyone at church our "uncles and aunties." We’ve carried that idea of a tight team unit into our school tennis team and our tennis center to bring everyone closer together.

USTA Texas: Through your NJTL chapter at Kiest Tennis Center, you've had some pretty incredible volunteer experiences. What have been some of the highlights?

Andrew: We get to volunteer as ball kids every year at the Dallas Open, which is now an ATP 500 tournament. It’s an otherworldly experience seeing pro players 20 feet in front of you serving 130 miles per hour. We also ball kids for the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation fundraiser. Last year, I actually got to babysit Dirk’s three kids for a couple of hours during the event, and we met people like Steve Nash, Klay Thompson, and Luka Dončić. So it was just really cool getting to meet all these people because of the opportunities that our tennis center provides us.

Andrew Lim, left, and his younger brother Aaron share a laugh after an evening practice session at their Dallas NJTL chapter.

From left, Andrew, his older sister, father, mother, and brother Aaron celebrate Lunar New Year. The family hosts an annual celebration for the local Malaysian church community.

High school junior Andrew Lim prepares for a return during a training session. Lim logs roughly 25 hours a week on the court between varsity and academy practices.