Laxmi Poruri-Madan has the distinction of being the first Indian-American female to play professional tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 on the WTA tour in the modern era. She grew up in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 where, from a very young age, she was known as a tennis prodigy. In 1986, she won the Orange Bowl

Orange Bowl (tennis)

The Orange Bowl is an annual college football bowl game. Orange Bowl may also refer to:* Miami Orange Bowl, a demolished stadium formerly in Miami, Florida* One of two tennis tournaments, one for juniors and the other for youth...

, beating Monica Seles

Monica Seles

Monica Seles is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was born in Novi Sad, Serbia, former Yugoslavia to Hungarian parents. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007...

 in the final. At age 15, she played her first US Open where she lost to Katerina Maleeva

Katerina Maleeva

Katerina Maleeva is a Bulgarian tennis player. She played in the WTA tour, competing in singles, doubles and mixed doubles between 1984 and 1997. Her best position in the WTA rank list was number 6 in 1990.-Biography:...

 in the 2nd round. She attended Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 from 1990-1994 on a full athletic scholarship, where she was a four-time All-American athlete, and 1994 Player of the Year. After graduating from Stanford, Poruri played professional tennis for several years. Upon retiring from professional tennis, Poruri taught English for a year in Boston, MA. Poruri then attended McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

 in Canada, where she received her MBA. Poruri worked on Wall Street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

for two years before returning to California in 2004.

As of fall 2010, she resides in San Francisco, CA with her husband and daughter.

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