Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Mary Grace Grabill/Northwestern Athletics
From Grand Slams to Evanston: Margot Phanthala Enters Her Next Chapter at Northwestern
1/20/2026 2:58:00 PM | Women's Tennis
On Thursday, May 26, 2022, Margot Phanthala could hardly believe where she found herself.
As just a 15-year-old, she stood on the ground of the historic Roland Garros venue. Phanthala, who had lived in Paris for half her life to that point, prepared to take the clay court for her first-ever juniors Grand Slam match.
As she stepped onto the court before the French faithful, a mix of emotions overtook Phanthala. She was nervous. She was overwhelmed. She was in awe.
"I was on the court and was just like, 'What's happening?'" Phanthala said. "I couldn't realize it until I started warming up. I was like, 'Okay, this is actually happening.'"
Since that day, tennis has taken Phanthala across the world. She has played at the juniors level of all four Grand Slams, including in the French Open every year since 2022. Her years competing on the junior and professional circuits, which began in 2020, have carried her along a winding journey that now continues in Evanston.
In the fall, Phanthala's first collegiate victory came over the No. 10 player in the country in Michigan's Piper Charney. In her first-ever weekend of dual matches, Phanthala — the No. 39 player in the ITA singles rankings — starred at the No. 1 singles position in all three of Northwestern's matches and finished with a perfect 3-0 record. She dropped just 12 total games.
For Head Coach Claire Pollard, Phanthala — who is the fourth-highest ranked first-year in the nation — represents a level of player that she has rarely come across since she took over the Wildcats' program in 1999. To Pollard, Phanthala's boundless experience competing on the biggest stages prepared her for her position atop the singles lineup.
"I think (she's) what we need," Pollard said. "I feel like when we've been at some of our better teams, that's the caliber of play we've had at the top. It's someone who's used to being at that level."
But college tennis wasn't on the table for Phanthala when she took the court as a 15-year-old at Roland Garros. For her, it was merely a backup option if her tennis career didn't go according to plan. That changed on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, in Bradenton, Florida.
***
Searching and scouring for talent, former assistant coach Georgia Munns roamed the Eddie Herr International Championship, held at a 16-court facility at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
A 16-year-old Phanthala caught Munns' eye. Munns approached Phanthala after the match, inciting the thought that college tennis could be an option for the young prospect.
"After that talk with Georgia, I talked with my parents about it, and we thought a little deeper into it," Phanthala said. "I still wasn't sure that I was going to come to college."
The following week, assistant coach Ellyse Hamlin traveled to Plantation, Florida for the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships to watch Phanthala. Seven weeks later, Pollard boarded a flight en route to San José, Costa Rica in anticipation of finally getting the opportunity to see Phanthala play.
Munns and Hamlin told Pollard what to expect in Phanthala, and the five-time ITF juniors title winner immediately delivered in front of the five-time Big Ten Coach of the Year.
"(Georgia and Ellyse) were spot on," Pollard said. "She's very technically sound. She has a game that will translate to the next level. … She's very composed. You don't know what she's feeling out there. She plays big, kind of pro tennis, where she's trying to take the offense off every ball."
Hamlin traveled to the juniors French Open to see Phanthala over that summer. The coaching staff had done their homework and built an incredible relationship with Phanthala. And in the ensuing fall, Pollard received a call from Phanthala.
It was unfortunate news. Phanthala was committing to Princeton. Pollard said she was "bitterly disappointed." All of the time and resources spent on recruitment were seemingly for nothing.
Except it wasn't for nothing. Less than a month later, Phanthala made another call to Pollard. She came with good news. She had decomitted from Princeton.
"I called (Claire) back, and I told her that I was actually super interested in coming to Northwestern," Phanthala said. "I asked her if there was one more spot available for my year."
A spot was available, but Pollard didn't immediately say yes to Phanthala. She pondered with Munns and Hamlin about the decision to extend a scholarship offer again.
Ultimately, the coaching staff was too impressed with Phanthala and had done too much work with her to pass up the opportunity to bring her in. As she looks back on that decision, Pollard couldn't be more happy with it.
"The fall was just so great to be around her. I was just so impressed with her this fall. She transitioned really well," Pollard said. "I think if I knew then what I know now, I would have been even more heartbroken (when she committed to Princeton)."
***
Pollard feels she has never had a first-year with as good a technique as Phanthala.
"Her technique is pretty flawless," Pollard said. "I'm thinking back to some of the all-time greats we've had here. I don't remember anyone being quite as technically sound."
Phanthala was first introduced to tennis at four, as she admired her older brother's talent and picked up balls for him. Then, alongside sports like basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and track and field, Phanthala picked up a tennis racket. She played once a week at first, but her love for the sport soon blossomed.
Her dad became her coach, and priority number one was ensuring that she would be as fundamentally sound as possible.
"In order to grow as a tennis player, you have to have a great technique to start with," Phanthala said. "(My dad) thought that was the foundation for me that was very important, so we worked on my technique a lot."
At age eight, Phanthala moved from Beijing to Paris. At age 10, she started to dream about playing professional tennis. At age 15, she spent time training in Belgium, where she started to see her results improve and believe that she had a professional future. At that same age, she stepped into women's ITF tournaments, regularly competing against players years her senior.
Playing against older, more experienced competition provided a watershed moment for Phanthala. Her eyes were open to an entirely new style of play.
"In juniors, I was more of a counter-puncher, and then as soon as I started playing women's, I realized that they were actually aggressing me a lot," Phanthala said. "I was just like, 'Oh, then maybe I should make this step first and attack them first.' And so that's when I found my game."
Phanthala's game has evolved to where she reached an ITF Junior Ranking career-high of No. 64. It has evolved to where she stood out to Munns while she could have seen 31 other players playing at that moment in time. It even evolved to where she could defeat the No. 10 college player in the nation.
When Phanthala defeated Charney for her first career win, she didn't even know that she defeated one of the country's top players. Assistant coach Tripp Tuff and sophomore Erica Jessel only informed her after the match. The victory just affirmed Pollard's belief in the first-year.
"Truthfully, that's kind of what we want her to be," Pollard said. "We really feel this year when we go out there, we're going to have someone who can play with everyone."
After her success in the fall, Phanthala's No. 39 ITA singles ranking is the highest by a Wildcat since at least the 2022-23 season.
***
Introduced in 2023, the ITA ITF College Accelerator Program offers wild cards to ITF tournaments to help players propel their professional dreams. The catch is that only the top five women's players nationwide at the end of the season qualify for it.
Phanthala's goal for this season is no secret. She wants to finish this season ranked in the top five for the Accelerator Program, and by playing ITF tournaments and using the wild cards she earns, she wants to move into the WTA's top 500 by the end of next summer.
"(The wild cards) would be really important because it would bring me to bigger tournaments, and that would help me improve my WTA ranking quicker," Phanthala said. "It's something that would make me a better player as well. Having those experiences, playing those big tournaments, those great players will definitely bring me a lot."
Phanthala and Pollard have had conversations about the first-year's goal of reaching the top five. Pollard said he has no doubt Phanthala can reach that level, adding that even if it doesn't happen this year, it will "for sure" come to fruition in the ensuing season.
Phanthala's time at Northwestern is set to be just another chapter of her tennis career — not the conclusion of it. Her goal of becoming a professional tennis player persists, and she plans to use the Northwestern coaching staff to reach her full potential. She knows that every piece of constructive feedback will help her inch up the rankings.
"Having (the coaching staff) behind my back every day at practice, them pushing me, telling me that I should run down to every single ball, telling me, 'Oh, this one you could have hit it harder,' or, 'This one you could have done it better.' Having those coaches behind my back every day and making me improve every single day, I feel like that's a great step," Phanthala said.
For years, Phanthala has traveled with her father — her lifelong coach. It's always been an individual sport for her, which is part of the reason she fell in love with the sport.
But now, by coming to Evanston, she is experiencing being part of a team for the first time. Whenever she takes the court now, she knows her match is bigger than just herself.
"I'm bringing my competitive side because I'm competing for a team," Phanthala said. "I've never really got the chance to compete for a team before, and coming here with all these teammates, these amazing coaches, it's been super great."
As just a 15-year-old, she stood on the ground of the historic Roland Garros venue. Phanthala, who had lived in Paris for half her life to that point, prepared to take the clay court for her first-ever juniors Grand Slam match.
As she stepped onto the court before the French faithful, a mix of emotions overtook Phanthala. She was nervous. She was overwhelmed. She was in awe.
"I was on the court and was just like, 'What's happening?'" Phanthala said. "I couldn't realize it until I started warming up. I was like, 'Okay, this is actually happening.'"
Since that day, tennis has taken Phanthala across the world. She has played at the juniors level of all four Grand Slams, including in the French Open every year since 2022. Her years competing on the junior and professional circuits, which began in 2020, have carried her along a winding journey that now continues in Evanston.
In the fall, Phanthala's first collegiate victory came over the No. 10 player in the country in Michigan's Piper Charney. In her first-ever weekend of dual matches, Phanthala — the No. 39 player in the ITA singles rankings — starred at the No. 1 singles position in all three of Northwestern's matches and finished with a perfect 3-0 record. She dropped just 12 total games.
For Head Coach Claire Pollard, Phanthala — who is the fourth-highest ranked first-year in the nation — represents a level of player that she has rarely come across since she took over the Wildcats' program in 1999. To Pollard, Phanthala's boundless experience competing on the biggest stages prepared her for her position atop the singles lineup.
"I think (she's) what we need," Pollard said. "I feel like when we've been at some of our better teams, that's the caliber of play we've had at the top. It's someone who's used to being at that level."
But college tennis wasn't on the table for Phanthala when she took the court as a 15-year-old at Roland Garros. For her, it was merely a backup option if her tennis career didn't go according to plan. That changed on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, in Bradenton, Florida.
***
Searching and scouring for talent, former assistant coach Georgia Munns roamed the Eddie Herr International Championship, held at a 16-court facility at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
A 16-year-old Phanthala caught Munns' eye. Munns approached Phanthala after the match, inciting the thought that college tennis could be an option for the young prospect.
"After that talk with Georgia, I talked with my parents about it, and we thought a little deeper into it," Phanthala said. "I still wasn't sure that I was going to come to college."
The following week, assistant coach Ellyse Hamlin traveled to Plantation, Florida for the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships to watch Phanthala. Seven weeks later, Pollard boarded a flight en route to San José, Costa Rica in anticipation of finally getting the opportunity to see Phanthala play.
Munns and Hamlin told Pollard what to expect in Phanthala, and the five-time ITF juniors title winner immediately delivered in front of the five-time Big Ten Coach of the Year.
"(Georgia and Ellyse) were spot on," Pollard said. "She's very technically sound. She has a game that will translate to the next level. … She's very composed. You don't know what she's feeling out there. She plays big, kind of pro tennis, where she's trying to take the offense off every ball."
Hamlin traveled to the juniors French Open to see Phanthala over that summer. The coaching staff had done their homework and built an incredible relationship with Phanthala. And in the ensuing fall, Pollard received a call from Phanthala.
It was unfortunate news. Phanthala was committing to Princeton. Pollard said she was "bitterly disappointed." All of the time and resources spent on recruitment were seemingly for nothing.
Except it wasn't for nothing. Less than a month later, Phanthala made another call to Pollard. She came with good news. She had decomitted from Princeton.
"I called (Claire) back, and I told her that I was actually super interested in coming to Northwestern," Phanthala said. "I asked her if there was one more spot available for my year."
A spot was available, but Pollard didn't immediately say yes to Phanthala. She pondered with Munns and Hamlin about the decision to extend a scholarship offer again.
Ultimately, the coaching staff was too impressed with Phanthala and had done too much work with her to pass up the opportunity to bring her in. As she looks back on that decision, Pollard couldn't be more happy with it.
"The fall was just so great to be around her. I was just so impressed with her this fall. She transitioned really well," Pollard said. "I think if I knew then what I know now, I would have been even more heartbroken (when she committed to Princeton)."
***
Pollard feels she has never had a first-year with as good a technique as Phanthala.
"Her technique is pretty flawless," Pollard said. "I'm thinking back to some of the all-time greats we've had here. I don't remember anyone being quite as technically sound."
Phanthala was first introduced to tennis at four, as she admired her older brother's talent and picked up balls for him. Then, alongside sports like basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and track and field, Phanthala picked up a tennis racket. She played once a week at first, but her love for the sport soon blossomed.
Her dad became her coach, and priority number one was ensuring that she would be as fundamentally sound as possible.
"In order to grow as a tennis player, you have to have a great technique to start with," Phanthala said. "(My dad) thought that was the foundation for me that was very important, so we worked on my technique a lot."
At age eight, Phanthala moved from Beijing to Paris. At age 10, she started to dream about playing professional tennis. At age 15, she spent time training in Belgium, where she started to see her results improve and believe that she had a professional future. At that same age, she stepped into women's ITF tournaments, regularly competing against players years her senior.
Playing against older, more experienced competition provided a watershed moment for Phanthala. Her eyes were open to an entirely new style of play.
"In juniors, I was more of a counter-puncher, and then as soon as I started playing women's, I realized that they were actually aggressing me a lot," Phanthala said. "I was just like, 'Oh, then maybe I should make this step first and attack them first.' And so that's when I found my game."
Phanthala's game has evolved to where she reached an ITF Junior Ranking career-high of No. 64. It has evolved to where she stood out to Munns while she could have seen 31 other players playing at that moment in time. It even evolved to where she could defeat the No. 10 college player in the nation.
When Phanthala defeated Charney for her first career win, she didn't even know that she defeated one of the country's top players. Assistant coach Tripp Tuff and sophomore Erica Jessel only informed her after the match. The victory just affirmed Pollard's belief in the first-year.
"Truthfully, that's kind of what we want her to be," Pollard said. "We really feel this year when we go out there, we're going to have someone who can play with everyone."
After her success in the fall, Phanthala's No. 39 ITA singles ranking is the highest by a Wildcat since at least the 2022-23 season.
***
Introduced in 2023, the ITA ITF College Accelerator Program offers wild cards to ITF tournaments to help players propel their professional dreams. The catch is that only the top five women's players nationwide at the end of the season qualify for it.
Phanthala's goal for this season is no secret. She wants to finish this season ranked in the top five for the Accelerator Program, and by playing ITF tournaments and using the wild cards she earns, she wants to move into the WTA's top 500 by the end of next summer.
"(The wild cards) would be really important because it would bring me to bigger tournaments, and that would help me improve my WTA ranking quicker," Phanthala said. "It's something that would make me a better player as well. Having those experiences, playing those big tournaments, those great players will definitely bring me a lot."
Phanthala and Pollard have had conversations about the first-year's goal of reaching the top five. Pollard said he has no doubt Phanthala can reach that level, adding that even if it doesn't happen this year, it will "for sure" come to fruition in the ensuing season.
Phanthala's time at Northwestern is set to be just another chapter of her tennis career — not the conclusion of it. Her goal of becoming a professional tennis player persists, and she plans to use the Northwestern coaching staff to reach her full potential. She knows that every piece of constructive feedback will help her inch up the rankings.
"Having (the coaching staff) behind my back every day at practice, them pushing me, telling me that I should run down to every single ball, telling me, 'Oh, this one you could have hit it harder,' or, 'This one you could have done it better.' Having those coaches behind my back every day and making me improve every single day, I feel like that's a great step," Phanthala said.
For years, Phanthala has traveled with her father — her lifelong coach. It's always been an individual sport for her, which is part of the reason she fell in love with the sport.
But now, by coming to Evanston, she is experiencing being part of a team for the first time. Whenever she takes the court now, she knows her match is bigger than just herself.
"I'm bringing my competitive side because I'm competing for a team," Phanthala said. "I've never really got the chance to compete for a team before, and coming here with all these teammates, these amazing coaches, it's been super great."
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