Late Bloomers
In professional tennis, there have been many players, both men and especially women, who have had tremendous success at an early age, e.g. Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker, Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, Martina Hingis. With the exception of Evert, most players who succeed early also end up retiring early because of burnout or injuries or a combination of the two. Conversely, there are also examples of players who
don’t achieve success until late in their careers after hovering around the top echelons of the game for many years, e.g. Ivan Lendl and Amelie Mauresmo. Grand Slam titles late in a player’s career can often be even sweeter, but then again it’s also sometimes harder to maintain the momentum as Amelie Mauresmo has found in the past year. Two players who achieved success early and also later in their careers were Martina Navratilova and Andre Agassi. What’s wonderful is to see how many former greats remain connected to the sport after they retire either as senior players, TV commentators, coaches, promoters, etc. Tennis is definitely a sport for a lifetime…
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