Photo by: UNC Athletic Communications
GoHeels Exclusive: For Blumberg, It's All About The 'WE'
May 24, 2018 | Men's Tennis, Featured Writers
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
William Blumberg easily couldn't be here right now. To some in the tennis world, he probably shouldn't be.
He could be in Geneva or Lyon, France, where the Geneva Open and Lyon Open, respectively, are being held between now and Saturday. Or maybe he could be in Paris attempting to qualify for the French Open.
But instead, he's here, sitting at a table inside the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on Monday, answering questions about his past and present and future before leaving for Winston-Salem to compete in the NCAA Men's Tennis Singles and Doubles Championships.
A fan of the New York Giants, Knicks, Rangers and Yankees, Blumberg, the sophomore star for the North Carolina men's tennis team, dons a Yankees cap today. He's also wearing a UNC men's tennis T-shirt and shorts. He shifts back and forth in his chair as he speaks, occasionally removing his hat and placing it on the table. A two-lettered tattoo peeks out from under the right sleeve of his shirt.
The letters, "W" and "E," are merged together, forming "WE." It's a word as simple as the ink font it's written in. But to Blumberg, it means everything.
"I'm not a guy who has a ton of friends; I'm not looking for a million friendships," he said. "But the ones I do have, I cherish really closely and I consider them all family. I traveled a lot in my life alone, through different cities and towns and times when I didn't know if this is what I wanted to do. But I'm very happy I stuck with it."
And it's because of the people he's been surrounded by.
'Something serious'
One of the last towns on the border of Rhode Island, Little Compton used to be part of Massachusetts. Even now, the small town, anchored by its general store and Rhode Island's only official town common, still shares the characteristics of a proper Massachusetts settlement.
Blumberg and his family make annual summer pilgrimages from their home in Greenwich, Conn., to Little Compton. The people there are as much a part of him as anyone else.
"It's kind of like my favorite place on the planet," Blumberg said. "It's a super small town, a super close-knit family. We may not talk every day, but I think about all of them all the time."
Little Compton is where Blumberg said he met his first true friend, still his best friend. And it's also where his tennis career began.
As younger siblings are wont to do, Blumberg always wanted to be like his older brothers, Andrew and Alex. So whenever they started playing a sport, William followed suit. There was basketball and golf and hockey and soccer. He also played some lacrosse. And when Andrew and Alex began attending tennis clinics in Little Compton, there was William, racket in hand.
William juggled all those sports for much of his youth. But as his tennis schedule started causing him to miss practices and arrive late to games for other sports, he began narrowing his focus. Basketball was the last to go; he quit playing it at 12 or 13.
Around that same time, he started experiencing success at the national level in tennis.
"I guess I kind of realized that, 'OK, this is something serious,'" William said. "I knew it was before. But I was still in school."
Over the last decade or so, it's become common for American juniors aspiring to play professional tennis to abandon regular school for home or online educational programs. Young athletes across several other sports also seek alternative schooling. But given the year-round competition schedule and travel associated with tennis, the sport almost requires such action.
William left regular school in the middle of eighth grade. He took online classes over the next four years. And in that span, he ascended into the top 10 of the ITF junior rankings.
Then after competing in the U.S. Open Junior Tennis Championship in September 2015, he made a decision few people in his position would have. He removed himself from the sport.
At the time, William said he'd grown frustrated with tennis. He'd been playing through mono for about five months, and that was starting to take a toll on his body. He also missed his friends who were in school.
"So I took a little half-step back from tennis, and I kind of rediscovered what I loved about it," William said. "I love competing and everything. I took three or four months off, and I think that was honestly the best thing that's happened to me in my tennis career."
During that time off, William decided to return to school. He said he needed to be around other people, specifically kids his age, and engage in class discussions.
Doing so helped prepare him for what came next.
'Impossible to turn down'
The thought of foregoing his college eligibility and pursing a professional tennis career of course crossed Blumberg's mind. How could it not have?
Junior players of his caliber face this same decision every year. More recently, an increasing number of them have picked college tennis over the Futures circuit as a development path. But plenty still opt for the latter.
Several of Blumberg's friends – Taylor Fritz, Michael Mmoh, Reilly Opelka, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe, just to name a few – elected not to play in college. All five are currently in the top 200 of the ATP World Tour singles rankings. Fritz and Tiafoe are in the top 70.
Blumberg could likely be experiencing similar professional success right now. Yet he chose to wait.
"It's so cool for me to look at them and watch them," Blumberg said. "It's something I want to do, obviously, eventually. I was thinking about it, but at the end of the day, (attending college) was just the best thing for me to be able to develop as a person on and off the court."
Blumberg said he was "probably a little too immature" to enter the professional ranks out of high school. He and his parents also stressed academics. And at UNC, he could grow in those areas.
But nothing drew Blumberg to Chapel Hill more than the embrace of the Carolina family.
From the moment he stepped on campus, he felt that. It began with the men's tennis coaches and eventual teammates such as Jack Murray and Ronnie Schneider. Yet it also stretched to athletic trainers and managers and other teams and other coaches and support staff and administrators and professors and academic advisers, and the young fans who come to practices and matches, hoping to help in any way they possibly can.
Blumberg embraced them, as well. They became part of his family.
"On the court, you're playing for them, too," Blumberg said. "It's not about yourself. I tell the guys a lot, I'm like, 'Go out there and rep what's on your chest. You're repping that "N.C." and you're repping something that's bigger than yourself.'
"And to have the ability to do that and to be a leader at a university like this is something that's impossible to turn down."
More than a friendship
It's by no means unusual for UNC student-athletes from different sports to attend each others' games. But when Blumberg steps onto Court 1 at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, an abundance of Tar Heels fill the neighboring stands.
Luke Maye, Andrew Platek and Shea Rush from men's basketball, Kendra Koetter and Madison Laufenberg from volleyball, and a majority of the men's golf team are among the UNC student-athletes who have frequented Blumberg's matches in recent weeks. When he's not playing, he offers them his support.
"Watching them do what they do and them coming to watch us do what we do," Blumberg said, "it's on more of a level than a friendship."
These sorts of bonds, Blumberg said, are the ones that he hoped to develop in college. They've formed naturally. And they've also helped him grow.
Take his relationships with Maye and sophomore men's golfer Austin Hitt as examples.
On a visit three months before he enrolled, Blumberg said Ben Griffin and William Register, currently seniors on the men's golf team, introduced him to Hitt at "Homegrown Halloween" on Franklin Street. They immediately became friends. A few months later, Blumberg met Maye in a tutoring session for their Business 101 class. They've been close ever since.
Blumberg said spending time with Maye and Hitt, as well as several other student-athletes, has helped him understand "what it means to be fully professional." That relates to sleep, nutrition, hydration and working hard both on and off the court.
Whether it's watching Hitt chip and putt at 6 a.m. at the Chapman Golf Center or Maye practice his shot on a Saturday night in the Smith Center, Blumberg said they've set an example for him.
"It's weird because I'll go to a basketball game and I don't feel like I'm watching such a crazy thing," Blumberg said. "I feel like I'm watching my friend (Maye) do what he does. Or when I went and walked with Austin at his U.S. Open qualifier (on May 9 at Duke University Golf Club), it doesn't feel like golf; I'm just watching someone's decisions and mental process."
And he's applied what he's learned to his pursuit of his goals.
Not content
They began only as whispers. But after Blumberg finished his sensational freshman season as the NCAA singles runner-up and then won the ITA Men's All-American Singles Championship in October, the voices grew louder.
Stand near Blumberg's court long enough during a match and you'll hear one person, if not more, discussing how Blumberg's time in Chapel Hill is nearing an end, how he's sure to leave for professional tennis after this season.
Surely Blumberg hears them, too.
Several people ask him about his future. Yet he tends not to talk about it and remains concentrated on what's happening now, as difficult as that might be at times.
"I will give 100 percent of myself to what I'm doing, whenever I'm doing that," Blumberg said. "If we're playing a match on a Sunday, on that Saturday I'm focusing on that match; I'm not focusing on anything else. That's just kind of how I am."
Still, Blumberg said he'd be "crazy not to think about things." And over the next few days in Winston-Salem, he'll evaluate his game against some of the best collegiate players in the country. That'll be both in NCAA singles play, where he's the No. 2 overall seed, and in doubles, where he and Robert Kelly are also seeded No. 2.
Blumberg takes pride in having become the first player in program history to reach the NCAA singles championship match, as well as his other accomplishments from last season. But he ultimately fell short of one of his goals.
"I want to win a national championship," Blumberg said. "That's what I work for every day this season. It's why you come in for extra reps, it's why you do the extra lifts and all of this stuff. To say I'd be content with anything else is a lie. But it's a steppingstone for the next step and for the next season or whatever comes next.
"If I don't win a national championship, to say I wouldn't be happy would be a lie because I would be happy with how the year has been. But I wouldn't be content because that's kind of my goal. To say I'd be content with anything less is kind of selling myself short and what I feel like would be letting people down."
Because for Blumberg, it is – and always will be – about "we."
Â
William Blumberg easily couldn't be here right now. To some in the tennis world, he probably shouldn't be.
He could be in Geneva or Lyon, France, where the Geneva Open and Lyon Open, respectively, are being held between now and Saturday. Or maybe he could be in Paris attempting to qualify for the French Open.
But instead, he's here, sitting at a table inside the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on Monday, answering questions about his past and present and future before leaving for Winston-Salem to compete in the NCAA Men's Tennis Singles and Doubles Championships.
A fan of the New York Giants, Knicks, Rangers and Yankees, Blumberg, the sophomore star for the North Carolina men's tennis team, dons a Yankees cap today. He's also wearing a UNC men's tennis T-shirt and shorts. He shifts back and forth in his chair as he speaks, occasionally removing his hat and placing it on the table. A two-lettered tattoo peeks out from under the right sleeve of his shirt.
The letters, "W" and "E," are merged together, forming "WE." It's a word as simple as the ink font it's written in. But to Blumberg, it means everything.
"I'm not a guy who has a ton of friends; I'm not looking for a million friendships," he said. "But the ones I do have, I cherish really closely and I consider them all family. I traveled a lot in my life alone, through different cities and towns and times when I didn't know if this is what I wanted to do. But I'm very happy I stuck with it."
And it's because of the people he's been surrounded by.
'Something serious'
One of the last towns on the border of Rhode Island, Little Compton used to be part of Massachusetts. Even now, the small town, anchored by its general store and Rhode Island's only official town common, still shares the characteristics of a proper Massachusetts settlement.
Blumberg and his family make annual summer pilgrimages from their home in Greenwich, Conn., to Little Compton. The people there are as much a part of him as anyone else.
"It's kind of like my favorite place on the planet," Blumberg said. "It's a super small town, a super close-knit family. We may not talk every day, but I think about all of them all the time."
Little Compton is where Blumberg said he met his first true friend, still his best friend. And it's also where his tennis career began.
As younger siblings are wont to do, Blumberg always wanted to be like his older brothers, Andrew and Alex. So whenever they started playing a sport, William followed suit. There was basketball and golf and hockey and soccer. He also played some lacrosse. And when Andrew and Alex began attending tennis clinics in Little Compton, there was William, racket in hand.
William juggled all those sports for much of his youth. But as his tennis schedule started causing him to miss practices and arrive late to games for other sports, he began narrowing his focus. Basketball was the last to go; he quit playing it at 12 or 13.
Around that same time, he started experiencing success at the national level in tennis.
"I guess I kind of realized that, 'OK, this is something serious,'" William said. "I knew it was before. But I was still in school."
Over the last decade or so, it's become common for American juniors aspiring to play professional tennis to abandon regular school for home or online educational programs. Young athletes across several other sports also seek alternative schooling. But given the year-round competition schedule and travel associated with tennis, the sport almost requires such action.
William left regular school in the middle of eighth grade. He took online classes over the next four years. And in that span, he ascended into the top 10 of the ITF junior rankings.
Then after competing in the U.S. Open Junior Tennis Championship in September 2015, he made a decision few people in his position would have. He removed himself from the sport.
At the time, William said he'd grown frustrated with tennis. He'd been playing through mono for about five months, and that was starting to take a toll on his body. He also missed his friends who were in school.
"So I took a little half-step back from tennis, and I kind of rediscovered what I loved about it," William said. "I love competing and everything. I took three or four months off, and I think that was honestly the best thing that's happened to me in my tennis career."
During that time off, William decided to return to school. He said he needed to be around other people, specifically kids his age, and engage in class discussions.
Doing so helped prepare him for what came next.
'Impossible to turn down'
The thought of foregoing his college eligibility and pursing a professional tennis career of course crossed Blumberg's mind. How could it not have?
Junior players of his caliber face this same decision every year. More recently, an increasing number of them have picked college tennis over the Futures circuit as a development path. But plenty still opt for the latter.
Several of Blumberg's friends – Taylor Fritz, Michael Mmoh, Reilly Opelka, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe, just to name a few – elected not to play in college. All five are currently in the top 200 of the ATP World Tour singles rankings. Fritz and Tiafoe are in the top 70.
Blumberg could likely be experiencing similar professional success right now. Yet he chose to wait.
"It's so cool for me to look at them and watch them," Blumberg said. "It's something I want to do, obviously, eventually. I was thinking about it, but at the end of the day, (attending college) was just the best thing for me to be able to develop as a person on and off the court."
Blumberg said he was "probably a little too immature" to enter the professional ranks out of high school. He and his parents also stressed academics. And at UNC, he could grow in those areas.
But nothing drew Blumberg to Chapel Hill more than the embrace of the Carolina family.
From the moment he stepped on campus, he felt that. It began with the men's tennis coaches and eventual teammates such as Jack Murray and Ronnie Schneider. Yet it also stretched to athletic trainers and managers and other teams and other coaches and support staff and administrators and professors and academic advisers, and the young fans who come to practices and matches, hoping to help in any way they possibly can.
Blumberg embraced them, as well. They became part of his family.
"On the court, you're playing for them, too," Blumberg said. "It's not about yourself. I tell the guys a lot, I'm like, 'Go out there and rep what's on your chest. You're repping that "N.C." and you're repping something that's bigger than yourself.'
"And to have the ability to do that and to be a leader at a university like this is something that's impossible to turn down."
More than a friendship
It's by no means unusual for UNC student-athletes from different sports to attend each others' games. But when Blumberg steps onto Court 1 at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, an abundance of Tar Heels fill the neighboring stands.
Luke Maye, Andrew Platek and Shea Rush from men's basketball, Kendra Koetter and Madison Laufenberg from volleyball, and a majority of the men's golf team are among the UNC student-athletes who have frequented Blumberg's matches in recent weeks. When he's not playing, he offers them his support.
"Watching them do what they do and them coming to watch us do what we do," Blumberg said, "it's on more of a level than a friendship."
These sorts of bonds, Blumberg said, are the ones that he hoped to develop in college. They've formed naturally. And they've also helped him grow.
Take his relationships with Maye and sophomore men's golfer Austin Hitt as examples.
On a visit three months before he enrolled, Blumberg said Ben Griffin and William Register, currently seniors on the men's golf team, introduced him to Hitt at "Homegrown Halloween" on Franklin Street. They immediately became friends. A few months later, Blumberg met Maye in a tutoring session for their Business 101 class. They've been close ever since.
Blumberg said spending time with Maye and Hitt, as well as several other student-athletes, has helped him understand "what it means to be fully professional." That relates to sleep, nutrition, hydration and working hard both on and off the court.
Whether it's watching Hitt chip and putt at 6 a.m. at the Chapman Golf Center or Maye practice his shot on a Saturday night in the Smith Center, Blumberg said they've set an example for him.
"It's weird because I'll go to a basketball game and I don't feel like I'm watching such a crazy thing," Blumberg said. "I feel like I'm watching my friend (Maye) do what he does. Or when I went and walked with Austin at his U.S. Open qualifier (on May 9 at Duke University Golf Club), it doesn't feel like golf; I'm just watching someone's decisions and mental process."
And he's applied what he's learned to his pursuit of his goals.
Not content
They began only as whispers. But after Blumberg finished his sensational freshman season as the NCAA singles runner-up and then won the ITA Men's All-American Singles Championship in October, the voices grew louder.
Stand near Blumberg's court long enough during a match and you'll hear one person, if not more, discussing how Blumberg's time in Chapel Hill is nearing an end, how he's sure to leave for professional tennis after this season.
Surely Blumberg hears them, too.
Several people ask him about his future. Yet he tends not to talk about it and remains concentrated on what's happening now, as difficult as that might be at times.
"I will give 100 percent of myself to what I'm doing, whenever I'm doing that," Blumberg said. "If we're playing a match on a Sunday, on that Saturday I'm focusing on that match; I'm not focusing on anything else. That's just kind of how I am."
Still, Blumberg said he'd be "crazy not to think about things." And over the next few days in Winston-Salem, he'll evaluate his game against some of the best collegiate players in the country. That'll be both in NCAA singles play, where he's the No. 2 overall seed, and in doubles, where he and Robert Kelly are also seeded No. 2.
Blumberg takes pride in having become the first player in program history to reach the NCAA singles championship match, as well as his other accomplishments from last season. But he ultimately fell short of one of his goals.
"I want to win a national championship," Blumberg said. "That's what I work for every day this season. It's why you come in for extra reps, it's why you do the extra lifts and all of this stuff. To say I'd be content with anything else is a lie. But it's a steppingstone for the next step and for the next season or whatever comes next.
"If I don't win a national championship, to say I wouldn't be happy would be a lie because I would be happy with how the year has been. But I wouldn't be content because that's kind of my goal. To say I'd be content with anything less is kind of selling myself short and what I feel like would be letting people down."
Because for Blumberg, it is – and always will be – about "we."
Â
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Golf
/ Men's Golf
/ Men's Tennis
S
/ Volleyball
OH/OPP
/ Volleyball
/ Men's Tennis
G
/ Men's Basketball
/ Men's Golf
/ Men's Tennis
Carolina Insider - Football at Charlotte Preview (Full Segment) - September 5, 2025
Saturday, September 06
Bill Belichick Coach's Corner - Episode 2 - Sep. 3, 2025
Saturday, September 06
UNC Men's Soccer: Tar Heels Secures Hard-Earned Draw at #5 NC State
Saturday, September 06
UNC Volleyball: Tar Heels Take Home Opener in 4 Sets vs Bucknell
Saturday, September 06