American Varvara Lepchenko, who reached the fourth round of a major for the first time at Roland Garros, recalls arriving in the United States a little more than 10 years ago from Uzbekistan. Lepchenko, who received her U.S. citizenship last September, eventually settled in Allentown, PA, after she met the housing coordinator of USTA Challenger there, Shari Butz.
"She was super nice," Lepchenko said. "Me and my dad, we didn't have enough money to rent an apartment, so we were struggling, going from one place to another. She said, 'Listen, I know you guys are all the time on the road. If you ever need a place to stay, you can come and stay with me,' because she had a huge house and had a lot of room in it. So she became like my mom. She was with me at the time when my mom wasn't there. And then she organized pretty much everything for me. She set up a club for me to practice in. It was at no charge. When my mom arrived after four years, I started to do better and started to make more money, and I was able to rent an apartment."