Maria Sharapova recalls her tough childhood
In a recent interview, Maria Sharapova recalled her beginnings. The Russian player used to train a lot once she moved to the United States to train at the IMG Academy founded by Nick Bollettieri. "I was born in Siberia and after a year or so we moved to Belarus where my parents were born, then we headed to Sochi which was a completely different climb, a different part of the world, that's where I started and began my tennis career. So I have little bits and pieces of memories, I was always surrounded by my family which is a small and I do not come from a huge family of aunts and uncles, so I was always surrounded by my parents, grandparents, whether I was going to the park, Black Sea. So those were my childhood memories. I was younger, I moved to Florida practising at a tennis academy and learning a new language, I was surrounded by kids that do not shut up, I was having a great time. Of course at a young age your mother is so influenced and it's so good to have that family support but it's funny I was sad not to be able to see her every day but I was so caught up in what I was doing and I was so driven every day, waking up at 6:00 AM, you have your first lesson at 6:45, you just kept doing that and you go play tournaments in the weekends and time flies by."
On what made Bollettieri a great coach, Sharapova added: "What separated him from maybe different examples was that he did not take no for an answer when he was travelling around Florida having worked with different coaches. Financially it was a problem, he'd find a way to make up for it later, he just did not take no for an and I followed that, I watched him because he knew that he wasn't great not only as a tennis coach but was a father. It took me to all different places and coaches to teach me different parts of the sport and I grew up with that, as he travelled he learned himself and at the end of it all he became a great coach for me."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2GCG2qq
No comments