The great American boxer, Evander Holyfield, once very aptly described champions in the statement when he said, “When at a young age you learn to face your fears, that makes the difference between people being champions and people not being champions.”From being little kids persevering hard on the court, to becoming tennis legends, these champions have come a long way. Here is a look at their childhood pictures:
#15 Novak Djokovic
The current World No.1, Novak Djokovic was born on May 22, 1987 in Belgrade, Serbia. He began playing at the age of four and by the time he was 13, he was sent to Germany and was enrolled into Pilic Academy in Munich. As 16, he had won five ITF tournaments.
#14 Agnieszka Radwaska
She was born on the 6th of March,1989 in Krakow, Poland. Agnieska started playing when she was four and was greatly inspired by Pete Sampras and Martina Hingis. She became a professional player in her early teens. She won the Wimbledon girls title in 2005 and came into the limelight.
#13 Caroline Wozniacki
The current world number 8 was born on July 11, 1990, in Odense, Denmark. Both her parents Piotr and Anna Wozniacki were professional athletes. She began playing at the age of seven and was coached by her father. According to her website, her biggest inspirations have been Martina Hingis and Steffi Graf.
#12 Milos Raonic
Milos Raonic was born in Titograd, Yogoslavia and moved to Canada with his family when he was three years old. He started training at the Bramalea tennis club in Brampton. He is the only male Canadian tennis player ever to be ranked inside the top 10 in ATP Singles Ranking. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic commented about Raonic’s serve: “He has one of the best serves in the world. Very powerful, very precise.”
#11 Kei Nishikori
Kei Nishikori, the only Japanese player so far to break into the top-10 of the Men’s singles world ranking, began playing when he was five. Nishikori was born in Matsue in Japan and after graduating from high school, he moved to Florida to further his tennis skills.
#10 Ana Ivanovic
The current world number 5, started playing the game when she was five years of age and recalls that she instantly fell in love with the game. She took up the sport after watching Monica Seles playing a match on television. As a child, she has even practiced in an empty swimming pool at the Jedanaestu April 11 Sports Centre in Belgrade. She later moved to Switzerland to develop her game.
#9 Tomas Berdych
Berdych was born in Moravia, Czechoslovakia to Hana Berdychová and Martin Berdych and started playing tennis at the age of five. He was just 8 when he recahed the final of the top young boys of Czech Republic and won the title. He soon became a top player in the junior circuit and won the Czech Republic U-12 title
Sania Mirza’s first coach was her father Imran Mirza who put his journalism career aside to help his daughter fulfill her dreams. She began playing at the age of 6. The golden girl of Indian tennis has won many accolades in her career so far and is an inspiration for young tennis players in India.
#7 Stanislas Wawrinka
When Wawrinka was 15, he stopped going to school to focus on his tennis full-time. However, he completed his schooling through correspondence. In the junior category, he won the Wimbledon in 2003 and reached as high as a career ranking of 7 in juniors. This year, his greatest win came when he clinched the Australian Open title.
#6 Andy Murray
Andy Murray was born in Scotland on May 15, 1987 to Judy and William Murray. The current world number 6 experienced a terrible tragedy when he was 8 years old. A man called Thomas Hamilton entered Dunblane Primary School and shot down 16 kids and a teacher before shooting himself. During this horrible incident, Murray ran and hid inside the Principal’s office.
#5 Eugenie Bouchard
Eugenie Bouchard was born to Michel Bouchard, an investment banker, and Julie Leclair in Montreal. She started playing tennis at the age of five and is a member of Tennis Canada’s National training center in Montreal. Her favorite tennis player is Roger Federer and described her meeting with the 17-time Grand Slam champion as the highlight of her life.
#4 Serena Williams
Serena Williams practiced for two hours each day with her sister Venus and her father,when she was just three years old. Serena’s dad Richard, a sharecropper from Louisiana taught himself the art of tennis from videos and books before he began to coach his daughters. The family moved to Campton, California from Michigan where Serena practiced and polished her skills.
#3 Rafael Nadal
Nadal won his first tournament when he was 12, which gave his uncle and trainer Toni Nadal, an incentive to step up his training. By the time he was 13, he had won a lot of European tennis circuit titles of his age group.
#2 Maria Sharapova
Maria was born in Nyagan, Russia on April 19th, 1987. Her father Youri’s friend Aleksandr Kafelnikov presented her first tennis racquet to her. And that was when the making of a champion began.
#1 Roger Federer
Federer was four years old when his childhood idol, Boris Becker won his first Wimbledon title in 1985. From then on, he watched all the tennis matches on television. Looking back at his childhood, he recalls, “I liked tennis the best of all sports. It was always exciting and winning or losing was always in my hands.”
