Stanford University celebrated Indian-origin tennis player Samir Banerjee as he graduated this month with a degree in science, technology, and society. For his final project in Stats 100: Mathematics of Sports, Samir built an algorithm to analyze years of tennis server data across different surfaces to determine which players were most successful. “I did a pretty deep dive into serving stats,” said Banerjee, an ITA All-American who helped lead the Stanford men’s tennis team to an ACC championship in 2025. “And I realized if I was serving above 60 percent on first serves in every match, I would put myself in a pretty good position to win.”“He came to Stanford with the goal of becoming a professional tennis player, and also of taking advantage of everything the campus had to offer academically and socially. He built his major around computer science, statistics, management science and engineering, and humanities courses that pushed him to think more broadly, and made some of his best friends through the Kappa Alpha fraternity,” the university said.Playing for a team after years of competing individually also pushed him in ways he hadn’t anticipated. “There’s a mindset shift that needs to happen, where you need to put the team’s objective over your own personal goals,” he said. “That’s where a lot of growth happened for me. You’re not just playing for yourself, you’re playing for everyone who cares about the program.”“Being a student-athlete at Stanford is a special experience. It’s such a tight-knit community, and everyone is so supportive. It’s really shaped me as a person, and I am fortunate I’ve been able to be a part of it,” Banerjee said.
Who is Samir Banerjee?
Samir Banerjee is an American tennis player with a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 347 achieved on 3 November 2025 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 800 achieved on 8 September 2025. He won the 2021 Junior Wimbledon title and reached the quarterfinals at the 2021 Junior US Open. Banerjee had a career-high ITF junior combined ranking of No. 2, achieved on 12 July 2021Born in New Jersey, Banerjee started playing tennis with his dad at age 6; by 12, he’d chosen it over the other sports he played growing up. He went on to win Junior Wimbledon, reaching No. 2 in the junior world rankings, and completed high school online to accommodate travel to international tournaments. “I was kind of in a bubble where I interacted mostly with coaches and other players,” he said. “I really enjoyed it, but there was an opportunity cost – I didn’t have a prom, I didn’t get to hang out with my friends senior year,” Banerjee said about growing up as an athlete.
