One day my dad would say, 'OK, if you want to play tennis I can help you out.' And that's how it started. And I had a goal. I wanted to beat my mom first. And my parents and my brother. And that was the ultimate goal.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
You know my dad pushed me to believe that I was going to be the best. I just never thought of life without tennis, even looking forward.
As a child, I was lucky to have the support of my parents because starting a tennis career is a very expensive adventure.
So, yeah, Dad was right. Tennis was the way to go.
I've been athletic since I was a kid. My parents got me playing tennis when I was seven years old and I started to play competitively.
Tennis was always there for me, which was lucky. I would go play baseball, basketball, football, hang with my brother, do whatever, and at the end of the day I'd come back and say, 'Hey, Mom, would you hit 15 minutes worth of balls with me?'
As a kid, I wanted to be a pro tennis player. I was pretty good; at the tennis academies I attended, I always 'played up' against older age groups.
Well, my mum's been a tennis coach - she coached me till I was 12.
I was being groomed to be a tennis player for sure. My grandparents and parents realised I had a natural athletic ability and if I was forced to do it, I could probably do well. But all I wanted was to play pretend.
It was so inspiring for me to watch tennis growing up. I thought I was really good playing, until my brother told me I wasn't!
No, like I said, my dad was never really part of the tennis. His involvement around what I did with the tennis and with my mom and my grandparents was really not a part of my life.