She was 13, alone, and in Morocco.

Gloriana Nahum had travelled far from her home in Cotonou, Benin to embark on a tennis journey.

From the tiny West African nation of Benin (population 14 million), Nahum was trying to make a tennis dream come true.

But in early 2020, when Covid-19 struck, many of her teammates at the tennis academy went back to their home countries, but Nahum was still in Morocco.

“There were five players left, and they were all speaking English, and I was trying to learn, because my main language was French,” Nahum recalled Sunday. “And they were very nice, but they were all older than me. It was really hard.”

But Nahum persevered, and look at her now: She played a first round match in the US Open Junior championships on Sunday.

And while she lost, falling 6-1, 6-2 to Alena Kovackova of Czechia, just getting here was quite the accomplishment for the outgoing Nahum.

And she’s not leaving America anytime, soon; in July she signed a scholarship offer from standout college program University of Oklahoma to play there for the next few years, and she began classes two weeks ago.

“Just so happy to be here, playing in a Grand Slam,” Nahum said. “To come from a place where we don’t play tennis a lot, not a lot of clubs, I feel very proud to be here.”

Mariana Cobra, the associate coach at Oklahoma who was here with Nahum, said she’s excited about her freshman’s potential.

“We’ve been following her for a long time, and we really like how she plays,” Cobra said. “She’s got a big forehand and really plays aggressively.”

Nahum’s racket journey began when her father, Aymar, put her in a host of sports as child when she was around 5.

“I was a heavy kid so my dad wanted me to run around a lot,” Nahum said with a giggle. “So I did running, swimming, and I was pretty good at everything.”

By age 8 Aymar asked his daughter which sport she liked best, and her limited experience with tennis made her happiest.

“With tennis I liked it because you travel a lot make so many friends,” Nahum said. “There was this tournament in Togo and I had so much fun, playing team matches and meeting the other girls.

"So I said ‘let’s play tennis and see what happens.’”

What happened is Nahum kept improving, playing ITF tournaments and eventually moving to train in northern France in the beginning of 2021.

After a short stint there she moved to Paris and began playing even more tournaments, where college coaches like Cobra took notice.

Nahum said she at first ignored texts from Cobra and other coaches, but the Sooners assistant won her over with her empathy.

“She wasn’t asking me about my tennis, she was always concerned with me and my family and how I was doing,” Nahum said. “I never really thought about going to college, but (Mariana) was so friendly and helpful that I started to think about it.”

Nahum committed to Oklahoma without even visiting; her first trip to Norman was when classes started in mid-August.

But the team environment of college tennis excites her.

“The first few weeks were hard, but I really like it, and the team is wonderful.” Nahum said. “And I think I can find good African food there!”