Fiona Crawley is not an imposter. She’s every bit of legit.

Last week, Fiona Crawley of the University of North Carolina Women’s tennis team went through qualies of U.S. Open. Despite being ranked outside of 700 in the world entering qualies, I don’t think that anyone that knows her is actually that surprised. There’s simply no other way to put it – Crawley is a baller. She wins at an egregious clip. She just completed her Junior year for the Tar Heels and she holds a 123-11 career singles record, including a 75-4 career mark in dual matches. Those numbers are not real.

Recently, Crawley was asked what her plans are after she graduates. She responded in a playfully humble way that she was going to travel for a couple years and get her butt kicked on tour, then get into teaching. Part of this response may be true, but I’m not sure I see the getting her butt kicked on tour part carrying much water. You won’t either if you spend any time watching her play. She’s just too good.

Crawley Belongs on Tour

After qualifying, Crawley noted that she was suffering a little from imposter syndrome as she walked around the grounds and took inventory of what she had done working through qualies last week. She was trying to convince herself that she belonged. Thankfully for Crawley, but unfortunately for her opponents, any notions or feelings of imposter syndrome fade away when the match gets rolling and she gets lost in the competition. It’s a different Crawley when the match begins. The self-effacing thoughts are nowhere to be found, and she comes to win. Indeed, she belongs. 

When I asked Sudanwa Sitaram (“Suds”), the current Florida State Men’s Assistant Coach and Crawley’s former coach in juniors (he also happens to be one of my best friends and former teammate), how good Crawley is right now, he said that she’s probably top 100, level-wise, today. Suds has always been Crawley’s biggest fan – rightfully so. What’s not to like?

For years in juniors and even throughout college when we would talk, he would always bring up something like, “You see my girl, Fiona? She’s never going to lose. She’s better than everyone.” When I talked to Suds about Crawley a couple days ago, he said, “One thing that sticks out, is that she always said ‘I hate to lose.’ She was just always saying it. I remember her saying out loud to me, all the time, ‘I just hate to lose.’” Yeah – we can tell, Fiona. When it comes to this imposter syndrome stuff, Suds said, “She may be a little unsure walking into something for the first time, but she just needs to do it once, then it’s locked in. She does it once, and she knows she can do it – she believes.” Suds, who is also very close with the Crawley family, confirms everything you might hear or gather from Crawley about the fact that she’s just a regular girl, who attended a regular public school in San Antonio, that is also one of the best tennis players walking around. “Her family is great, I’m very close with her brother and her parents still.”

Suds continues, “Crawley is super normal. She works very hard on court, but she’s always been social and enjoyed her time with her friends and time spent away from the court. She can compartmentalize as well as, if not better than, any player I have ever seen. And she never lets one thing get in the way of the other.” I love that line from Suds – sounds like a good coach to me (shameless plug for my boy!).

Flaws with the NCAA Rules

You probably also saw Crawley come out and voice the absurdity that she was effectively forced to forego $80,000 in order to maintain her eligibility. As I noted earlier, Crawley has another year of eligibility, she wants to finish her degree, and she loves being with the Heels. As she correctly pointed out, if she had been handed that money by a donor or booster for NIL activities, she would have been able to keep it. How we still operate in a world where Crawley has to forego what would be a quality annual salary that she earned through her actual performance and results, but we would have allowed her to be handed it under this new umbrella of marketability is lunacy. Look, I’m pro NIL; kids should be able to profit off of their marketability or otherwise take financial support to offset costs of going to school. I want to keep that door open.

It’s just so obvious we need to open another. Athletes in revenue generating sports at universities, like football and basketball, are often the sports that can avail themselves to more money through NIL opportunities; sports like tennis – while it is starting to happen at some places – certainly less so. That’s totally fine, and makes sense. That being said, there really aren’t other avenues for players in those sports go out and earn money, from a performance/results standpoint; but those do exist for tennis (similarly for something like golf). Players can go play a pro tournament on a random week and make significant money in tennis. So at least give them that. Honestly, give everyone everything.

Seriously, what was Crawley supposed to do? Try to call up a brand for a patch on her clothing or run Instagram ads to set up a quick deal for the brand to comp her for any earnings she would have to forego? What are we doing here? How about we just give her the money she earned? I know the counter to all of this is “just turn pro.” I’m tired so I don’t have a great response to that other than to just say shut up. Let’s tear down one of the last remaining façades of amateurism here. Pay the girl her money. She went through qualies of a slam. That’s earning it if I’ve ever heard of it.

Crawley may decide to hang up the sticks in a couple of years, regardless of her results. And hey, the world needs more good teachers. But my gut tells me that after two years on tour (health permitting), Crawley is going to have a tough decision to make. I’d like to see her keep playing. I’d like to hear her keep talking, too.