Where U From?
Everyone knows that tennis is a truly international sport and actually becoming even more so with all the talented players from Russia, China etc. the past few years. But sometimes those national tags can be a little bit misleading, at least in terms of tennis pedigree. I’m talking about all those players who were born in one country, but really became tennis players in another… so where are they really from? On the women’s side, there’s Maria Sharapova who was born in Russia, but has lived and trained in Florida and California since she was very little. Svetlana Kuznetsova, another talented Russian speaks Spanish fluently because she has trained at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Spain for years. Or the talented young phenom, Nicole Vaidisova, who is from Prague, but has trained at Bollettieri’s in Florida for years. On the men’s side, multi-talented, multiple Grand Slam winner, Marat Safin, is Russian, but trained for years in Spain as well. And what about the charismatic Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis, who moved to France to train in his early teens. Or the California-based Russian, Dmitry Tursunov, whose family moved to the states when he was a kid. Regardless, there are talented coaches in every country and hopefully the success of all these players will strengthen the training programs in their “home countries” even more.
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