Kimberly Po is immensely proud of her heritage and ethnic background – her father is from Singapore and her mother’s side were Japanese immigrants to California in the early 1900s. She just wishes she knew a little bit more about the incredible journey and hardships her grandparents had to endure after being placed in internment camps following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor that led to the start of World War II.

A Rolling Hills Estates resident and former world top 15 singles player, Po said recently that her grandparents, who were both born in the United States and passed away before she was born, never spoke about what life was like living in those camps.

“They lost their house, and it must have been horrific, but they never talked about it or gave information to my mom,” said Po, who won the mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 2000. “You just put your head down and move on. You don’t use that as an excuse.”

Po said it wasn’t until she took a Japanese American studies class in college that she began to do her own research and first learned about what happened to her family. “It wasn’t from them,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just can’t believe they never talked about this.’ ”

During Asian American Pacific Islander Month being observed this month, Po said it is important to know where you came from, and to be proud of your heritage.

“I think it’s good because for the most part Asian culture doesn’t get a lot of attention,” Po said. “I think it’s important and I do think the younger generation is more aware of everything, especially diversity. I just remember growing up I knew I was Asian but you never really expect to be treated any differently – good or bad. But at the same time because of that you’re never really aware of what people of your race have accomplished. So it’s a weird dynamic.”

Po said because her mother was born after her grandparents left the camps, she never learned how to speak Japanese because her parents wanted to prove that they were American. “There was not a lot of Japanese influence from my mom’s side growing up,” she said.

Po tries to instill what she was taught about her family history to her three children – Tristan Messerli, 20, who attends the University of Washington, Tia Messerli, 15, and Livia Nainkin, age 9.

Po currently stays busy helping coach Tia while Livia competes in gymnastics. Po remarried and her husband of 11 years David Nainkin is the longtime USTA Nationals Player Development Coach who has worked with Taylor Fritz, Zachary Svajda, and assists with many other juniors and pros.

Po also works with Palos Verdes resident and high school senior Sage Loudon, a five-star recruit headed to Cornell University in the fall.

There are many different ways to approach the competitive pathway for juniors now, according to Po, and it’s very different than when she was coming up through the ranks as a junior in Southern California.

“We all played the same tournaments – Whittier, Fullerton, Ojai and Sectionals, to name a few,” she said. “You would see the same people and the top five or six of us would then travel to Nationals.”

Once Po’s family had moved from West L.A. to Palos Verdes when she was 7, it was only a matter of time before she and her family ventured over to the Kramer Club. The late 1970s was the height of the tennis boom and Po met juniors close to her age like Melissa Gurney, Stephanie Rehe and Jeff Tarango. 

Her father had heard about a coach teaching just four or five miles down the hill at the West End Racquet Club in Torrance named Robert Lansdorp and began taking lessons with the former coach of Tracy Austin, Eliot Teltscher, Lindsay Davenport, Pete Sampras and Maria Sharapova.

After two years at UCLA, the 19-year-old Po was ready for the professional tour. “I got to the finals of a Challenger and won the next one, and then the USTA gave me a wild card into the US Open,” Po said.

Next thing Po knew, she was into the world top 100. A prolific career followed as Po not only won mixed at Wimbledon in 2000, but made the finals at the US Open in women’s doubles the following year. She would go on to win six top-level doubles titles and reach a career-high world-ranking of No. 6 in doubles (in 2001) to go with her No. 14 in singles (in 1997).

It’s all about the coaching now for Po, and not only for her young girls still competing in the juniors. Po has also consulted with fellow Palos Verdes resident Ena Shibahara, who she shares a strikingly similar career path with Po.

Consider: Both Po and Shibahara have Japanese lineage and were top-ranked juniors from Palos Verdes. Both played for UCLA for two years before turning pro; both have won a Grand Slam in mixed doubles; both reached the top 10 in doubles with Shibahara reaching No. 4 and Po No. 6.

“I’ve had great conversations with Ena and am so proud of her success in the pros,” Po said. “We have had similar career paths and I only hope the best for her in the future.”