Mass communication senior Jessica Binzari is a standout on campus, both in the newsroom and on the tennis court. As the sports editor for The Wichitan, she combines her passion fro journalism with the same drive that fuels her success as one of the university’s top tennis players. Binzari’s love for tennis began at the early age of eight-years-old. Binzari says she has a funny reason behind getting into tennis.
“So, it’s actually, I would say a funny story. I am left handed, but when I was seven I broke my right arm. I had a fracture and my parents thought that if they send me to play tennis, it would help my arm recover. So when I was eight, when I was out of the arm cast, I guess, I started playing tennis. I was left-handed, so it wasn’t hard on my arm, on my right arm. I just started playing tennis and I liked it so much that I just kept going and here I am now,” Binzari said.
Binzari grew up in Constanta, Romania. Constanta is a big tennis town due to Simona Halep, 2018’s number one player.
“Tennis in my town is pretty big because of Simona Halep. She was a number one player in 2018. And tennis was pretty big at the time, so everybody would play tennis,” Binzari said.
From a young age the thought to quit tennis never crossed Binzari’s mind. She always wanted to take her game to the next level, but never realized that collegiate tennis was an option until she was in high school.
“I never thought about quitting tennis. For me tennis was something I would do for the rest of my life, and like any kid I was dreaming that I could play professional tennis. I didn’t know college tennis was a thing. Back home, in Romania, we don’t play college tennis. We don’t play college tennis at all,” Binzari said.
Binzari continued to grow and improve her skill through playing on club teams and having many different coaches. One of the main coaches in her career was her father.
“My dad, because he was kinda the father figure and coach figure in my life. He would switch me around clubs a lot, so I never had one coach, it was a lot of moving around in my town,” Binzari said.
Recruitment for college athletes overseas looks different than recruiting within the United States. Binzari explains that due to being overseas, most athletes have to send videos to showcase their talents, since coaches aren’t able to travel to see that athlete in person.
“So I recorded a small YouTube video of myself with every shot… then point places so they could see me during a point setup, like, how would I play. And once I have that video posted, I just let it go. You would usually email schools, email coaches, and link my video for them to watch,” Binzari said.
Before attending MSU Binzari went to a school in South Carolina. After two years of competing, Binzari realized something was missing. She wanted a school and a program that was going to challenge her and make her better. She had a choice between MSU and a school in Pennsylvania.
“I had to decide between two schools, the reason I picked MSU was the environment that Coach [Linn] was presenting to me. I knew I wanted to have even better results in my first two years of college, so I wanted an environment that would challenge me to become better and reach my potential. And Coach [Linn] was very confident he could offer me that, so I took that offer,” Binzari said.
When coming to MSU Binzari had to adjust to more of a team winning mentality rather than the individualistic view that she had while in South Carolina.
“For me it was learning to win as a team. In my older school, I was the only player winning men’s and women’s, so it was very individual for me. The team wasn’t winning, and I couldn’t win for the team. I had to win for myself. Well, when I came here it was different because the players that were surrounding me were much better. The competition was higher and we were performing at such a high level that the team was winning,” Binzari said.
MSU has been very successful in the past few years. One of Binzari’s favorite tennis memories is from last spring when the team beat Wingate to make it to the semifinal round.
“My favorite memory was last spring when we went to nationals in Florida with the team. We made program history when we qualified for the national semifinals… I actually have some history with Wingate because they were the top school in the conference that I was a part of in my last school…Sophia actually was the clinch and we won four-three and I’m telling you when she won, tears rushed down my face, the whole team was lined up on the side court, and the moment it happened, tears rushing down my face. All of us sprinted to Sophia and just picked her up and it was just the most beautiful moment,” Binzari said.
Another standout memory for Binzari also happened while wearing an MSU uniform. Since her first season as a college player all Binzari wanted to do was win the regional tournament that happened every fall season.
“Well I’ve always had high hopes for this tournament, but I’ve never had high results. Three years in a row, I would not get further than the third round, and this year I just ended up winning the whole thing,” Binzari said.
As Binzari’s May 2025 graduation date approaches she has to think about her future not only in tennis, but also career wise.
After graduation Binzari plans to take her skills to the next level and try her hand in some summer tournaments, as well as professional tournaments. On the career side of things, Binzari mentions that she would love to stick around Wichita Falls to work, after receiving a job offer from a local news station, but ultimately said she will go wherever has the best opportunity for her career in journalism as well as her career as an athlete.
