Feature Story: The Extended Family Of Eva Elbaz

March 26, 2026 | Women's Tennis

On any of its many matchdays, the Si Qin Family Indoor Tennis Center is awash in sound. Foremost, of course, is the rhythmic back-and-forth of ball against racket, a dance that includes its assorted grunts and ends with shouts and exhortations — and yet there is so much more than that.

There is music, loud music, before the matches ever begin. There are cheers that start on one court and make their way across the other five, points in play be damned. Throw in some sneaker squeals, the between points on-court advice from the coaches and of course the fan applause, and you are left with a wonderful and yet decidedly un-tennis-like atmosphere, or at least one that would draw gasps from, say, the strawberries and cream crowds at Wimbledon. This isn’t that. This is “free pizza up on the concourse,” as there often is at Princeton’s sparkling tennis home.

This is what American college tennis is all about. It’s what makes it so unique in a sport where, from the first 8-and-under tournament or wherever all of these players started, it has always been about the individual, not the team. Here? This a team sport in every sense of the word.

This is what Princeton senior Eva Elbaz has been a part of for the last four years. Could she ever have imagined that not all that long before it became reality?

There is Elbaz, walking across the Si Qin stands. She wears a black Princeton tennis t-shirt and black Princeton tennis shorts. She is the team’s lone senior, as well as its captain. You can add that to the list of outcomes she would never have guessed were in store for her.

“Eva is such a ray of sunshine and a light in every room,” says junior Bella Chhiv, Elbaz’s doubles partner as well as the No. 2 singles player. “She’s so optimistic and can make anyone laugh. It reflects in her playing as well, and you can see that she’s always enjoying herself out there. Her joyful personality is contagious in the best way possible, and her work ethic is so inspirational to all of us. We couldn’t imagine a better team captain.”

Elbaz has made her way to a spot above Court 3, a coincidence indeed in that she is the No. 3 singles player for the Tigers, who open their Ivy League season Saturday at 1 on these courts against Penn. You don’t have to know her well to know that Chhiv is 100 percent correct when she calls her a “ray of sunshine.”

Elbaz has made her way to these courts on what is not one of the loud matchdays. This is midweek, mid-afternoon, practice for the Princeton women’s tennis team still more than an hour away. Over on Court 6, all the way to the right, there is one lesson that is going on. There is very little in the way of noise.

And that’s a good thing, at least as far as this conversation goes. Elbaz doesn’t exactly speak in whispers, but she often will come close. If most athletes can tell their story with the words they use, Elbaz can tell hers as much with the way she uses them. And this is never clearer than in her use of one particular word:

Ah-ron-deese-mon …

Princeton, on an average year, is represented by nearly 1,000 varsity athletes, all of whom have their own unique backgrounds. And yet, within those individual stories there are usually some commonalities. “Parents played at Princeton.” “Came to Reunions when I was little.” “Wanted the best combination of athletics and academics.” There are even the “never thought Princeton would be an option until the coach reached out and I came for my visit.”

There are very few “I came to the United States for the first time when I was a junior in high school and I didn’t speak any English.” That is reserved pretty much for Eva Elbaz, who grew up in, of all places, Paris. The one in France, not the one in Texas. Hearing her speak now, six years later, it is the French accent that gives away where she grew up, not the way she speaks English.

The city of Paris dates to before the Roman Empire, back to the third century BC. Julius Caesar himself was one of its first conquerors. Its population reached 200,000 by the 14h century, making it twice the size of London at the time. By the 18th century, it had been the center of Kings, Queens, wars, peace, revolution, architecture, literature, art and economics. Mr. Eiffel built his tower there in the 19th century, when Princeton University was still known as the College of New Jersey.

Elbaz’s family history in the city doesn’t go back quite that far. Her mother’s parents had come to Paris from Casablanca in the mid-1970s, when her mother (Johann) was a girl. Her father’s parents came from Algeria in 1962, before her father (Franck) was born..

“My mom’s family was mainly driven by the better economic opportunities and the ability to build a more stable future in France, where there were more business prospects at the time,” she says. “On my dad’s side, they left Algeria during the war of independence there. As the situation became unsafe, they relocated to France, like many others, and settled there to start over.”

What is it like to grow up in a city so famous, one that brings tourist after tourist to all of the familiar spots. What’s it like to have nearly every visitor to your hometown want to leave with a selfie in front of that very famous tower?

“I wouldn’t go out of my way to the Eiffel Tower,” she says with a laugh. “You can visit all those spots, but a tourist who does that won’t have time to experience the real Paris. There’s just so much there to do. There is something for everyone. It was amazing to grow up in Paris.”

The city itself is laid out in districts, known as “arrondissements.” They are known simply by their numbers. The Eiffell Tower is in the 7th. The Lourve is in the 1st. The Arc de Triomphe is in the 8th.

Elbaz grew up in the 16th, which also happens to be where Roland Garros, the home of the French Open, is. She is the youngest of three, with a brother Hugo who is seven years older and a sister Laura who is four years older. Her family in Paris includes aunts and uncles and cousins, all of whom form a very close-knit group.

Her introduction to tennis came from her father, who was a huge fan and recreational player who first got his older two children into the sport. As is often the case, Elbaz wanted to do what they were doing.

By the time she was 10, she was traveling around Europe to play in junior tournaments. She and her family even took a trip to South Africa for a tournament, the same event where another Parisian, current Princeton men’s No. 1 player Paul Inchauspe, also competed. After the tournament, she and her family stayed for a safari.

Eventually, her world junior ranking would get as high as 150. She had dreams of playing professionally. At the same time, she also was feeling increasingly isolated in the world of junior tennis. School was online. Her days were spent mostly training. And that was before COVID came along.

“Everything shut down,” she says. “The shutdown in Paris was very, very hard. We weren’t allowed to leave our house at all. I was playing in my garage against the wall.”

It was during that time that she first considered leaving her home city for another, much different, challenge, both educationally and athletically.

“To be honest, I felt lonely in France,” she says. “I thought it would be good to be in a more structured environment, and that’s when I started looking for a tennis academy.”

She found one in Bradenton. That’s in Florida. That’s nowhere near Paris. Eva Elbaz showed up at IMG Academy when she was 16 years old, as a high school junior. She was a great student and great tennis player, though in vastly different environments than the one she was about to begin.

Claude Martin is not your typical Claude, in that she is a woman. With Eva Elbaz now, oh, 4,600 miles from home, Claude Martin — also a French native — was the exact person she needed to have with her.

“I went to IMG and did a week trial,” she says. “I met the coaches, saw the school. I tried it and really liked it. The environment was super welcoming. Hey, the beach was five minutes away. I never got homesick.”

Elbaz could hit a tennis ball. That wasn’t a problem. She could get good grades too. Again, not a problem. What she couldn’t do was speak English. That? A problem.

What is the best way to describe IMG Academy? Its own website calls it “the world’s leading sports education brand, and its alumni populate college and pro rosters across pretty much all sports. It’s because of people like Claude Martin — the emeritus chair of IMG’s English Language Learner’s department — that the “education” part of that equation does not get lost.

“Even during our out-of-class conversations, we would not even speak French to each other,” Martin says. “Choosing the easy way was not for Eva.”

“I learned English there,” Elbaz says. She certainly did. It’s only five years later, and her English is flawless, even with the French accent. There are no “ums” or “oohs” or “how do you says.”

It’s not that it was easy. Far from it. She was taking biology, physics and everything else that’s part of a college prep track, all which she had to learn English.

“It took six months until I felt I could speak fluently,” she says. “It was a year until I was comfortable writing in English. I owe so much to Mrs. Martin. She met with me every single day.”

“She showed such kindness, such motivation, such pleasure in participating in my classes,” Martin says. “It’s no wonder she could test out after just one fall semester. I knew how important it was for my students to understand the meaning of the five Ps as we call them: Passion, Potential, Performance, Perseverance and People. Eva perfectly embodied them all. Most importantly, she showed constant integrity towards her people, whether they were teachers, coaches, friends or family.”

It was during her time at IMG that she began to go from thinking about a pro career to wanting to play college tennis in the United States. That’s not something that is common in France.

“In France, we don’t have a setting of a campus, living on a campus,” Elbaz says. “Being able to live with your friends, have breakfast, lunch and dinner with them, practice with them — that’s not something you’d experience in general. In Paris, you go to classes, you go home. You don’t play a sport. You go home and have dinner with your parents.”

Her tennis ability and her academic record at IMG opened the door to be recruited by Rice and Wake Forest. She would eventually make a visit to Princeton, and she was hooked quickly.

“I told her she would definitely get admitted to Princeton,” Martin says. “I’d say ‘from BradenTON to PrinceTON.’ I was so proud when she was admitted. Just to have the motivation and courage to apply in the first place was impressive. And then to get in like she did. She worked so hard. I was so very, very proud, but she’s really the one who should be proud.”

Claude Martin, in the center.

Even with two years of English-speaking, there was still the jump to be made into the Princeton curriculum.

“I’m definitely not shy,” Elbaz says. “I did get pretty shy in some class settings my freshman year. In a precept or a seminar, a writing seminar, having to participate in class is a big part of your grade. I did struggle with that. I even had to tell a few professors that I didn’t feel comfortable participating. Then I realized that if I say something wrong or someone couldn’t understand my accent, it was fine. To be honest, it was definitely a challenge to keep raising my hand. I had to force myself to do it.”

As far as tennis, she was an immediate contributor on the court as a freshman, mostly in doubles, and has been playing singles and doubles ever since. She was a key member of Ivy League championship and NCAA tournament teams as a freshman and sophomore.

“Eva is incredibly calculated when she plays, in singles and doubles,” Chhiv says. “She is able to deconstruct her opponent’s game very well and have a clear game plan of how she’s going to approach the match. Her court awareness is very sharp as well, and in doubles, it’s key to be able to read what is going on during the point and be able to reflect on the point after. She does both very well, and I’m very lucky to be her partner as I’ve learned so much from her just by playing with her.”

The Ivy League season that opens this weekend is a fairly wide open one. Princeton didn’t reach the top a year ago. Earlier this season the Tigers went 2-1 in the ECAC Championships, which is a tournament with all eight Ivy schools.

“There’s never been a year since I’ve been here where we knew we’d win or where we’d know we’d lose,” Elbaz says. “It’s always up in the air. We’re coming from a very confident place, though. We’re feeling very good about tennis and about ourselves. It’s going to be a hard and tough challenge. I thought we played really well last year even if we didn’t win it. This year will be very, very exciting to see.”

Her accent is a constant reminder that she is French, even if the way she speaks English is not. Every now and then, though, she’ll say a word that leaps out at you that makes you chuckle just a bit. In this case, it’s this:

ALOOM-nigh

As in: “We have a lot of ALOOM-nigh who talk about what it was like to play for the school, how much the school meant to them. Princeton has so much of that history. I really understood that quickly as a freshman. Daria [Frayman, the 2023 von Kienbusch winner as the top senior female athlete] was a big mentor of mine. She loved her sport. She was one of the best players in the country. She chose Princeton because of the history and the education, and she tried to share that with everyone on the team. You’re not playing only for yourself anymore. You’re playing for a team. Until you came to Princeton, it was all about yourself. Being part of this team is what drives me now. I’m about to be done with competitive tennis, and It’s really nice that I’m doing it for something bigger than just my own self. I try to get the younger players to know that.”

If you ask Eva Elbaz what her favorite part of Paris is, she’ll tell you it’s the Saint-Germaine section. It’s a super-vibrant neighborhood to the south of the city, in the 6th. It was in Saint-Germaine in 1783 that the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the American War for Independence.

It is slightly more than a half-mile from the location where the treaty was signed to the restaurant called Sugaar. It is a French/Spanish restaurant, one that is owned and operated by Elbaz’s cousins on her mother’s side. Perhaps the most intriguing item on the menu is the Brittany Blue Lobster, which is, actually, blue.

“The tradition is that when I come back from America, the whole family meets there,” Elbaz says.

Again, it’s a close group. That’s obvious from the photos of them she has shared. It’s obvious from how she talks about them. They are always a part of her.

“My grandfather on my mother’s side, David, aka Dede, used to ask me every time I saw him, before even saying hello or giving me a hug, ‘Eva, when will I see you on TV at Roland Garros?’” she says. “I may not have made it there, but I think about him every time I step onto the court. Even if I don’t reach the French Open, I wanted tennis to take me somewhere that would make him proud. He played such an important role in shaping my aspiration to pursue the sport. Even now, after being away from home for the past six years, my mom tells me that he still asks about me every single day-especially how my tennis is going, and when he might finally see me on TV. He is truly passionate, and the game still means so much to him.”

As she says, she’s been in this country for six years now, and her plans are to stay here beyond graduation. In fact, she’ll be working in New York City for an Australian bank. She is finishing her thesis — “my thesis examines how becoming eligible for retirement influences individuals’ dietary choices, with a particular focus on whether it leads to healthier eating patterns. The broader goal is to assess whether these changes in diet translate into meaningful improvements in health outcomes” — and she’ll be graduating with a degree in economics, with a finance minor.

Between now and then, there’s the matter of the Ivy tennis season and possibly the postseason beyond that. Princeton has been ranked consistently in the 30s and 40s this season. Whatever the rest of the season holds, Elbaz will be a huge part of it.

“My experience at Princeton has been amazing,” she says. “I’ve grown so much as a player but much more importantly as a person. Princeton has brought so much to my college journey. I feel super ready for my life beyond here.”

With that, she is off to practice. She leaves the bleachers and heads down onto the courts. While she’s been talking, a few of her teammates and coaches have made their way there, and now she joins them.

Suddenly, there is at least some noise coming from the courts. It’s not the roar of a gameday. It’s something even better.

It’s laughter. Who knows what they’re laughing about, but they’re laughing. It’s what teammates do.

And that’s the story of Eva Elbaz. She left one family in France and found another at Princeton, by way of a different matriarch in Florida.

— by Jerry Price