Tennis as a sport has long seen players step away from the court to chase new ambitions, from Vitoria Okuyama leaving the sport as the world’s No. 118 under-18 before shifting from Citi’s investment banking to entrepreneurship, to former British standout John Feaver selling T-shirts and racquets in the 1970s and 80s just to stay afloat. Now, a familiar chapter resurfaces as 29-year-old Sammi Ekmark departs her decade-long tennis journey to build a thriving business of her own, adding yet another compelling story to the sport’s lineage of reinvention beyond the baseline.

Ekmark first stepped onto a professional tennis court at age 10, and by college, she had become a force in the sport, competing on a Division I team and earning a spot among the top 50 singles players in the US. “I re

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