Modesty is not a trait usually found in talented tennis players, who are more likely to throw temper tantrums and unleash four-letter-word tirades than to bashfully defer talking about herself, saying: "I don't want to say anything good about me. Ask the coach."

Such is the personality of Anastasia Putilina, who plays number one singles for the University of Utah women's tennis team.

But her coach did not hesitate in describing her: "The best thing about her," said Mat Iandolo, "is that she is one of the nicest and most unselfish kids I have ever coached."

He added, "She is one of the best freshmen in the country. I'm sure she is in the top 10."

Iandolo should know. He spent 16 years building Purdue's program before coming back to Utah two years ago. Said Iandolo, "I was looking for a change," telling why he wanted to return to Utah where he played as a collegian at Weber State.

It seems the Utes may have been a bit lucky in landing the 17-year-old Russian into their fold. She was one of the best junior players in Russia but she lived in a little-known area of southwest Russia. "She was underrecruited," said Iandolo.

He was made aware of her by Evgenia Kryuchkova, who garnered MWC Freshman of the Year honors last year for Utah. "Kryuchkova told me," said Iandolo, "that this girl was as good or better than her."

After a few conversations via e-mail and phone, he offered her a scholarship.

Iandolo, knowing Kryuchkoya had played with Putilina in Russia, said "I figured there wasn't much risk."

Putilina states that her first goal is to finish her education. She wants to study International Relations and speaks two languages but is working on a third. Her interviewer informed her that Roger Federer speaks four or five languages. She smiled and quickly shot back, "He is much older than me."

She may not approach Federer's tennis accomplishments, but one can readily see her speaking four or five languages.

"But I am like a home person," she explained, "I watch TV and movies." Sounds like she is learning how to be a typical American college student.

Actually, watching tennis on TV with her dad was how she became interested in the sport. "We were crazy about it," she said.

When she was 8 her father put her into a tennis program, and by age 10 she was winning tournaments.

Her modesty kicked in again at this point as she declined to talk about her game.

But Iandolo held back no such reserve.

"She is a tremendous ball striker," he said, "She hits the ball really big."

He continued, "She has really big ground strokes on both the forehand and backhand sides. And she has a very good net game."

Iandolo concluded, "She has the potential to be the best women's tennis player that has ever played here. I am looking forward to building a great team around someone like her."

Putilina misses Russian food and said that only one restaurant in town can even come close to making good Russian food. Andrei Kirilenko and his wife haven't invited her to dinner yet, but she said she went to a Jazz game and cheered for him in Russian. "I was too far away," she said, "He couldn't hear me."

Somehow one believes that she will be heard loud and clear up on the hill during the next four years — if not her voice, her tennis racket will do the talking.

EMAIL: wjewkes@desnews.com