Lea Forste-Dinell doesn’t remember a time before tennis. As a family affair, there was never really a question of whether or not she would play. She says that when she has children of her own, they will be running around on tennis courts with rackets in hand by the time they’re three – exactly as she did in her native country of Sweden.

While sports other than tennis populated her life, it became her solo track by the time she was 12. As she grew older, she knew she wanted to continue playing while continuing her education, an option that didn’t exist back home. In search of a challenge and as a personal quest to prove herself, she went overseas for, as she put it, a “trial year” abroad in the U.S. 

“The idea, at first, was to just try it out for a year, but now, here I am in my senior year,” Forste-Dinell said, equating a 20-hour-weekly Division I tennis commitment on top of full-time academics to a gap year studying abroad. 

That first “gap year” was at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), where everything felt green. Between taking yoga and other classes unrelated to her eventual business degree, Forste-Dinell said that her first-year experience was as freshman-y as it could get. As someone who likes to maintain control of whatever situation she’s in, she felt unsettled during this time. 

“Everyone knew the environment except for me, and I’m a person who always wants to seem like I have control. I know what I’m doing, I know the environment [and] I want to seem confident in whatever room I walk into,” Forste-Dinell said. “When you’re not, and try to be confident, people see through that. I learned the hard way. I messed up on all the things I could mess up on, and then, I did better my second year.”

In the summer of 2023, after Forste-Dinell’s sophomore year, she was ready to call it quits on her American-in-Paris (well technically Swede in America) adventure, with her “gap year” already unexpectedly stretched to two. The decision to leave UIC came from a gut feeling and a loss of love for the sport, despite having loved her time and teammates and loving Chicago.

“You know when you just have a feeling that you’re not in the right place? That’s how I felt,” Forste-Dinell said. “Every day was just doing the same thing over and over again, and I didn’t feel any enjoyment. But then I came home, and I was like, ‘hm, I was probably just in the wrong place; I didn’t really not enjoy playing tennis because I loved it when I stepped on the court back home again.”

The love was there again. Now, it was time for her to find the right place. Enter the transfer portal.

There was a rational and spiritual gravitas that pulled Forste-Dinell to Hempstead, New York. The day after she entered the portal, she said that three different schools immediately showed interest, all based on Long Island. She took it as a sign that she should consider going back to the U.S.

“That’s at least what made me take the calls and talk to the coaches,” Forste-Dinell said. 

A couple of in-depth phone conversations with Arielle Shuren, who is now the men’s tennis head coach, sealed the deal. Forste-Dinell admitted that she went from “I’m only speaking to her to keep my options open” to “We built a relationship, it was a great talk and we figured it out. Here I am.” 

Junior year was a challenge coming in with experience but also being in a new enviroment. 

“It was strange coming in as a junior transfer because you were half freshie, half upperclassman,” Forste-Dinell explained. “It’s a feeling where everything is new, but also people rely on your experience.”

Jump to senior year, and time is flying too fast for her liking – an ambivalent feeling in her heart while having her last metaphorical lap around the track. She’s taking in all of her favorite parts of the training – 5:30 a.m. wake up for morning lift and all.

“Getting to do everything one last time is going to feel crazy, and then it’s going to be the final lift, the final practice, the final senior day, the only senior day,” Forste-Dinell said. “I’m going to miss so much out of all of this, all the people, all the routines, even like a simple car ride or a team meet.”

Forste-Dinell’s coming up to the end of the line and with it, a long list of lessons learned.

“My biggest [takeaway] has nothing to do with tennis, it is absolutely that you will always have your home, but don’t be afraid to leave it. Your home will always be there, so just leave your home and explore something different and meet other people,” Forste-Dinell said. “I’m more curious than scared, and maybe there’s some scary parts about curiosity, but it takes over.”

Forste-Dinell is just a semester and change away from getting her Bachelor’s degree all while playing high-level tennis simultaneously. She confirms that it was the right move because she wasn’t on the path of least resistance.

“Every day is, in a way, a challenge, when you’re on a team and to show up the same physically and mentally to be present… but that’s also what I love about it,” Forste-Dinell said. “I actually think that the whole idea of college sports is that it’s supposed to be a challenge, and that’s what I love about it.”

In retrospect, it made sense, given her upbringing.

“If there’s a step higher you could reach, try to reach it; it doesn’t matter if you don’t reach it, just try,” Forste-Dinell said, reiterating a common theme of her formative years. “I think that’s where my curiosity comes from.”

She’s let it reflect in her game. Forste-Dinell said that she tends to be a defensive player, but that her game has evolved to be braver since her time with the Pride, in tandem with how she feels about her confidence and standing in the world.

“[I’m] feeling like I have more ownership over my game and over my situation,” Forste-Dinell said. “Transferring was also a way of taking ownership. I wasn’t going to accept feeling bad or whatever I was feeling before; I was going to choose to go back to the U.S. My freshman year it was more like ‘I want to continue playing tennis, so let me just find somewhere to continue,’ and then that whole mindset switched when I was going to go back home but then decided to come back here.” 

Even though things in her life didn’t go as planned, Forste-Dinell still found a home on the court.

“I can’t really see my life without tennis.”

Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Alexis Friedman