Indian-born ACC champion Samir Banerjee built algorithms to analyze tennis data for his science, technology and society degree from Stanford University
Stanford University celebrates Indian-origin tennis player Samir Banerjee graduating this month with a degree in science, technology and society. In the final project in Statistics 100: Math for Sports, Samir built an algorithm to analyze years of tennis serve data on different surfaces to determine which players were the most successful. “I studied serve statistics pretty deeply,” said Banerjee, an ITA All-American who helped the Stanford men’s tennis team win the ACC title in 2025. “I realized that if I hit over 60 percent of my first serves in every match, I would be in a really good position to win.”“He came to Stanford with the goal of becoming a professional tennis player and taking advantage of everything the campus had to offer academically and socially. His majors revolved around computer science, statistics, management science and engineering, and humanities courses that pushed him to think broadly and made some of his best friends through the Kappa Alpha fraternity,” the university said.After years of competing individually, playing for a team also pushed him in ways he didn’t expect. “There needs to be a mindset shift where you need to put the goals of the team over your own personal goals,” he said. “That’s where I grew up. You’re not just playing for yourself, you’re playing for everyone who cares about this program.”“Being a student-athlete at Stanford is a special experience. It’s a close-knit community and everyone is so supportive. It’s really shaped who I am as a person and I’m lucky to be a part of it,” Banerjee said.
Who is Samir Banerjee?
Samir Banerjee is an American tennis player who achieved a career-high ATP singles world ranking of No. 347 on November 3, 2025, and achieved a career-high ATP doubles world ranking of No. 800 on September 8, 2025. He won the 2021 Wimbledon Junior Championship and reached the quarterfinals at the 2021 US Junior Open. Banerjee achieved a career-high ITF Junior Overall Ranking of No. 2 on July 12, 2021Born in New Jersey, Banerjee started playing tennis with his father at age 6; at 12, he chose the sport over other sports he had played since childhood. He subsequently won the junior Wimbledon title, reached No. 2 in the junior world rankings, and completed high school online to accommodate the demands of competing internationally. “I’m kind of in a bubble and I mostly interact with coaches and other players,” he said. “I really enjoyed it, but there was an opportunity cost — I didn’t go to prom, I didn’t get to hang out with my friends my senior year,” Banerjee said of growing up as an athlete.
