Even though Texas women’s tennis player Sabina Zeynalova now lives half a world away from her home in Ukraine, her country’s war with Russia is never far from her mind.

More than a year after Russia invaded, missiles continue to rain down on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital and Zeynalova’s beloved hometown. Air raid sirens still wail, and Ukrainian civilians far from the front lines still die.

The constant worry — and constant efforts to communicate with her family — are as much a part of Zeynalova’s routine as study sessions and tennis practices.

“My family is actually under attacks right now,” Zeynalova said Wednesday during an interview at the Texas Tennis Center. “Ukrainians have a very long history of fighting for their freedom and their values, and that keeps me going and keeps me motivated. There's always some something more to fight for other than just winning a tennis match.”

Like her country, Zeynalova presses on with life despite the war. That means she will try to help the Texas women’s team kick-serve a run at a third consecutive NCAA championship team title this weekend at the Texas Tennis Center, where both the women’s team and the top-ranked men’s team will host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

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The UT women (21-4) will face a scrappy Texas A&M-Corpus Christi team in the first round at 2 p.m. Friday. If the heavily favored Longhorns win, they’ll advance to face either California or San Diego at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Texas men (22-3) will face A&M-Corpus Christi at 1 p.m. Saturday. With a win, the Longhorns would meet either UTSA or Pepperdine at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Zeynalova will be in the middle of the action. A steady force in singles play as a freshman last season during UT’s run to the NCAA title, she has a 16-6 overall mark in singles this year, including a 15-4 record in dual-match action, and she's No. 113 in the latest ITA national singles rankings. She and partner Charlotte Chavatipon are ranked No. 28 among all doubles teams.

Oh, and Zeynalova, who’s leaning toward becoming a psychology major, just completed her sophomore season ranked as one of the Big 12’s top tennis players in terms of academics.

“I don’t know how she does it,” said Howard Joffe, a South Africa native now in his eighth season as the UT women’s head coach. “I mean, all of us have our beefs and gripes, and you can go to Twitter and collect them very easily. But the stuff we gripe about in our day-to-day really seems insignificant in the grand scheme of things, relative to the stuff that Sabina is having to have eyes wide open to day in and day out.

“She has this big bowl of distress, which is sort of like ‘Groundhog Day.’ It doesn't go away. She wakes up to it every day. And just the idea that she's able to have that distress, put it in a healthy sort of container, so to speak, put it to the side and then show up as a tennis champion. And then she’s also a great student. She's tough — that's for sure.”

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That toughness trickles through the entire tennis program, said UT men’s player Eliot Spizzirri, the Big 12’s player of the year and the top-ranked singles player in the nation. Spizzirri understands that the most successful players block out any off-the-court distractions when they step up to the service line, which makes Zeynalova's achievements especially impressive.

“For what Sabina is going through right now, it's pretty remarkable that she's able to step on the tennis court and maybe forget about some of these things, forget about the negatives and be inspired and play for her country and play for her family,” he said. “It's just another example of someone that is truly doing everything they can on the tennis court and become the best player they can be and not let external factors affect that. I mean, she hasn't missed a step in the last year and a half, two years. She's been an unbelievable player for the women's team. She’s a huge inspiration.”

NCAA Tennis Tournament

Rounds 1 and 2, Texas Tennis Center, Friday-Sunday

Men — Texas (22-3) vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (25-2), 1 p.m. Saturday; winner vs. Pepperdine or UTSA, 1 p.m. Sunday

Women — Texas (21-4) vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (20-7), 2 p.m. Friday; winner vs. California or San Diego, 4 p.m. Saturday

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 'Fighting for freedom' in Ukraine inspires Texas' Sabina Zeynalova