Player Features

Colton Smith: Fishing rods, cowboy boots & a fascinating player on the rise

It is not often you see a tennis player walking around the grounds of a tournament in jeans and cowboy boots. But Colton Smith is not the typical tennis player, and the University of Arizona student-athlete is just fine with that.

“I don't want tennis to be my identity necessarily,” Smith, who is into the second round of the BNP Paribas Open, told ATPTour.com. “I’ll play tennis when I'm out there, but then off the court, I guess I'm Colton Smith. I've got other motives and values in life, and so it's fun to be myself.”

Eight months ago, Smith was outside the Top 1,600 in the PIF ATP Rankings. But after defeating former Top 10 star Fabio Fognini and Pavel Kotov to qualify in Indian Wells and then ousting Flavio Cobolli for his first tour-level win, the Washington native is showing that he can compete with the best players in the world.

Importantly to the 22-year-old, he is doing it his own way. Smith even has two fishing rods — a collapsible spinning rod and a four-piece fly rod — back at the hotel.

Last week in San Diego the coach with Smith “was wanting to possibly do some fishing and whatnot, and nearby the ocean you never know what might come up,” he said. “And so I just threw them in my bag, just in case. And then we went straight from there to here.”

The on-court performance is clear. Smith, who through his college performance has qualified for the ATP Next Gen Accelerator, which provides direct entry into ATP Challenger Tour events, claimed his first trophy at that level earlier this year. But off the court, Smith has plenty of interests that keep himself busy.

“I think it's super nice because I always kind of think about if tennis doesn't work out, then I'll be a fishing guide, and I'll be just as happy doing that. And so that's kind of my retirement plan. I guess if tennis doesn't work out, then I'll just retire early and become a fishing guide,” Smith said. “But it's also nice too, because I feel like tennis isn't necessarily my identity when it comes to those things, I could get away and do so many other things. So if I have a bad day playing tennis, it's not going to necessarily hurt my ego too much or anything like that.”

_{^{Colton Smith at the 2025 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Photo: Andrew Eichenholz/ATP Tour}}

Smith wears his heart on his arm. The American’s left arm is full of tattoos, including images of a bear, an elk, a deer and himself walking with his dog Raymond, whom he calls ‘Ray Ray’. His sister, Chloe, has a dog named Finn and Colton rescued another dog, Maggie, more recently during a camping trip in Arizona.

“She was just out in the desert. I don't know if she had ran away or been abused and left out there, but she was in pretty rough shape, so we put her in the car, took her back,” Smith said. “Just a super sweet dog.”

_{^{Colton Smith is an animal lover. Photo: Colton Smith}}

The college tennis standout grew up on a farm in Washington. His love of animals has also carried over to art. Smith has an Instagram page full of pet portraits. He created artwork for people at the local tennis club to help pay for expenses.

Although he has lived in the same house his entire life, Smith believes this summer he will likely move towards California. “I’ve gotten about as much out of [Washington] as I can,” he said.

When Smith began playing tennis aged seven, he already began dreaming of becoming a professional. The ITA All-American will not become one until he completes college in a couple months, but is nearing the start of a new journey.

“I didn't really want to ever work a conventional job or have a desk job or anything like that. And so I was like, ‘If I can find a way around doing any sort of work where it feels like work, then that's what I'm going to try to do’,” Smith said. “Tennis always kind of stuck with it, and it's something that I really enjoyed doing and I loved and yeah it was something that I wanted to try to do for a career.”

Smith entered the BNP Paribas Open at No. 261 in the PIF ATP Rankings. He had never played a tour-level event, so it has been “a little overwhelming” seeing the world’s best players all around him.

“Just being feet away from [Novak] Djokovic and watching what he does, his routines, and I met Frances [Tiafoe] for the first time today. And Marcos [Giron] , I mean, they're all super, super nice guys,” Smith said. “You see them on TV, and they've got this persona. You only see them playing really. You don't get to meet them behind the doors or whatever. And so just being able to meet those guys — and they're just super standup, nice guys — it’s cool.”

It was a memorable moment Thursday when Smith was warming up for practice on Indian Wells’ famous green field. He was preparing just beside 99-time tour-level titlist Novak Djokovic.

“I was in awe a little bit like ‘Wow, it's actually him’,” Smith said. “You see him on TV forever, and that's probably the greatest tennis player in history, and he's playing the same tournament I am, or I'm playing same tournament he is, I guess.”

Smith has tried to climb between 25 and 50 places each month. Based on his efforts lately, that has been a breeze.

“Ultimately, I want to make a good living and retire off of [tennis] and hopefully make enough money to get a big old ranch and just live off of that,” Smith said. “But I think Top 50, Top 25, I wouldn't say they're not reasonable goals or anything like that. It’s something that I've always wanted to do since I was younger. And so to be able to be in a position to actually find myself chasing those goals still is pretty cool.”