TENNIS PLAYERS (Off-Court Shenanigans)

[meganfernandez]

Jaz is 18, and Jaden will be 20 in a couple weeks, crazy.

they could have been winning Slams by now. Has anyone ever had better tennis genes than these two?

I have to say that it makes me feel happy that they don't play competitive tennis. Steffi and Andre definitely didn't pressure them. Good for them.

Kevin

I guess... Probably healthier for the kids, and they had choices. As a fan, kills me to not see the Grafassi kids playing. (I just made up Grafassi. We have never portmanteau'd them, to my knowledge.)

[dmforever]

they could have been winning Slams by now. Has anyone ever had better tennis genes than these two?

I have to say that it makes me feel happy that they don't play competitive tennis. Steffi and Andre definitely didn't pressure them. Good for them.

Kevin

I guess... Probably healthier for the kids, and they had choices. As a fan, kills me to not see the Grafassi kids playing. (I just made up Grafassi. We have never portmanteau'd them, to my knowledge.)

Grafassi!!! You need to copyright that!! Great one!

Kevin

[Suliso]

Steffi looks great in that photo, but she's 52 already. Nothing online about the daughter, but the son apparently hopes to play baseball professionally.

Remins me of Korda daughters who also chose to go into sports, just not the same one as dad.

[meganfernandez]

I have to say that it makes me feel happy that they don't play competitive tennis. Steffi and Andre definitely didn't pressure them. Good for them.

Kevin

I guess... Probably healthier for the kids, and they had choices. As a fan, kills me to not see the Grafassi kids playing. (I just made up Grafassi. We have never portmanteau'd them, to my knowledge.)

Grafassi!!! You need to copyright that!! Great one!

Kevin

haha, thanks! Can't believe no one has mentioned it before. Probably because "Steffi and Andre" is easy to say. I just love a portmanteau, though.

[ti-amie]

There are tennis parents who don't want their kids anywhere near tennis. I think Jaden is working on a pro baseball career. I'm not sure what Jaz is doing.

[meganfernandez]

There are tennis parents who don't want their kids anywhere near tennis. I think Jaden is working on a pro baseball career. I'm not sure what Jaz is doing.

Seems like successful tennis players don't steer their kids toward tennis much at all. I guess there are some exceptions - Korda, Borg, Kostyuk, Zverevs, Mary Joe Fernandez's son, off the top of my head. But generally no, which seems like a damning statement. Who knows how many kids learn for fun (and potential competition), like Olympia is doing and the Federer kids have been seeing doing.

[Suliso]

Seems like successful tennis players don't steer their kids toward tennis much at all. I guess there are some exceptions - Korda, Borg, Kostyuk, Zverevs, Mary Joe Fernandez's son, off the top of my head. But generally no, which seems like a damning statement. Who knows how many kids learn for fun (and potential competition), like Olympia is doing and the Federer kids have been seeing doing.

It isn't. Did you as a teenager want to do the same thing in life as your mom or dad? Me definitely not. Hence I became a chemist not an engineer as both of my parents. And mind you I had a very good family (still do).

[ponchi101]

Jaden plays baseball and has a full scholarship for one of the big California universities.
I gather that playing the same sport as your super successful parent is a recipe for "regression to the mean". Seb Korda might be buckling the trend but, by and large, the kid will not be as good as the parent, most likely.
Connors' son played well enough to beat him at old age, but not enough to become an ATP player.
And notice how many players come from parents that are athletic, but NOT in tennis. It is truly an idiosyncratic sport (I believe Leylah's father was a soccer player, yet she went for our sport )

[Deuce]

Leylah played soccer as a child and very much wanted to be a soccer player like dad (as much as children wish when they are young). But her dad felt a soccer ball was too big for her to handle adequately at a young age, and so went out to find a sport that used a smaller ball - and that was tennis.
Seems to have been a good move.

Leylah is still a big soccer fan, and plays in her spare time.

[meganfernandez]

Jaden plays baseball and has a full scholarship for one of the big California universities.
I gather that playing the same sport as your super successful parent is a recipe for "regression to the mean". Seb Korda might be buckling the trend but, by and large, the kid will not be as good as the parent, most likely.
Connors' son played well enough to beat him at old age, but not enough to become an ATP player.
And notice how many players come from parents that are athletic, but NOT in tennis. It is truly an idiosyncratic sport (I believe Leylah's father was a soccer player, yet she went for our sport )

People are talking like Seb will be better than pops.

Idiosyncratic is a good word for it. If you don’t take to it and show aptitude early, it’s not much fun to stick with it.


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[skatingfan]

No one hated tennis more than Andre & Steffi. They were both pushed into the sport by hyper-aggressive & controlling fathers, and eventually found a level of peace with the sport and their place in it. No surprise that they didn't want their kids to follow that path.

[ponchi101]

Sorry, I don't agree. Steffi loved tennis. Her father told stories how she would had to be told to stop practicing because she loved being out there.
And Andre's position was a bit overplayed. Remember he cultured his "rebel" image.
And by the end of his career, I will give Andre credit. He became an ambassador and a gentleman on the court. And you could see how, when he retired, it was not a great day for him. If he really hated tennis at the beginning, by the end he showed none of that.

[skatingfan]

Sorry, I don't agree. Steffi loved tennis. Her father told stories how she would had to be told to stop practicing because she loved being out there.
And Andre's position was a bit overplayed. Remember he cultured his "rebel" image.
And by the end of his career, I will give Andre credit. He became an ambassador and a gentleman on the court. And you could see how, when he retired, it was not a great day for him. If he really hated tennis at the beginning, by the end he showed none of that.

I should have been more specific. Both Graf & Agassi have expressed a hate of professional tennis, what it required them to give up to pursue, and some of the impacts it had on them.

[Deuce]

Emma is largely seen as very classy and prim and proper...
I love this photo because it shows that she's not at all afraid to get dirty. As well, it takes guts for a girl to participate in things that have long been the domain of boys.
She's about 10 years old in this photo.

[meganfernandez]

Emma is largely seen as very classy and prim and proper...
I love this photo because it shows that she's not at all afraid to get dirty. As well, it takes guts for a girl to participate in things that have long been the domain of boys.
She's about 10 years old in this photo.

great photo. She's not a princess. She's a badass.