It’s a dream for many young athletes in the United States to receive scholarships and hone their craft at the collegiate level. But this dream isn’t limited to American athletes — international athletes decide to attend American universities in order to enhance their skills, too. This is especially true of internationally popular sports like tennis. 

One of these athletes is Joshua Charlton, Oregon’s only men’s tennis player ranked in both singles and doubles. The sophomore accepted a scholarship and decided to relocate from Australia to Oregon in order to participate in college athletics.

Charlton is from the city of Traralgon, located in southeast Australia. He also comes from a tennis family — his father, Graham, competed in tennis tournaments in Australia before transitioning to the coaching side of the game. To further his tennis training, he would take the train into Melbourne in order to work on his game at the National Tennis Centre and compete against some of the top junior players in the country. 

“I loved the one-on-one aspect of [tennis], the gladiatorial nature of it,” Charlton said. 

The United States is unique due to it being one of the few countries that has university-sponsored sports. For Charlton, at 18 years old, he had a decision to make. He had the opportunity to play in lower-level tournaments in Australia, but the prize money is limited and the likelihood of losing money from travel expenses is high. Or he could leave Australia and play in the U.S. collegiate tennis circuit, where he could improve his play before achieving his ultimate goal of becoming a professional tennis player. 

Charlton decided to take his talents to UO for a number of reasons. One of the main factors was the program’s facilities, but the lure of the Pac-12 Conference, one of the premier conferences in the country, was important for Charlton as well. He was also impressed with the development of another international player who improved his game in Eugene: 2019 graduate and France native Thomas Laurent.

All student athletes are invited to take official visits to the campuses of the schools they are interested in; however, due to scheduling conflicts, Charlton never toured the university. He had little knowledge of the school or the state of Oregon before he arrived on campus, and much of what he knew came from online videos. 

“To be honest I didn’t know much about it at all,” Charlton said. “In terms of location I really didn’t have much clue at all, I really jumped into the deep end.”

In his second season, Charlton has made a profound impact on the team. He is ranked No. 11 nationally in doubles play with teammate Ty Gentry and is ranked No. 19 in singles play. In the fall of 2019, Gentry and Charlton won the ITA Northwest Regional doubles championship. If he keeps up this level of production, it is entirely possible that he will compete in the NCAA National Championship. 

“One thing I have focused on is to always be on an upwards trend,” Charlton said. “Every day, be better than you were the day before.”