The Importance of Family Background in Pro Tennis

Sysyphus

Talk Tennis Guru
Thought it would be interesting to do a quick check of the family backgrounds of the top 30.

It seems a reasonable assumption to me that the vast majority of people who play tennis do not have parents who were pro tennis players, pro athletes or tennis coaches, as these are all rare professions overall. But it also appears to me that players with parents in these groups are overrepresented at the top of the game.


Parents who played pro tennis:
Alex Zverev (both parents were pros).
Tsitsipas (both parents were high-level players and coahces)
Casper Ruud (dad was top 50)
Taylor Fritz (both parents were pros, mother was top 10 on the WTA)
Shapovalov (mother on Soviet national tennis team)
Hurkacz (mother a Polish junior champ, both uncles were tennis players)

Parents or close family who were pro athletes or tennis coaches:
Rafa Nadal (uncle on Spain's national football team and Toni was a tennis coach)
Domi Thiem (both parents tennis coaches)
Andrey Rublev (dad a pro boxer, mother a tennis coach)
Bautista Agut (dad a pro footballer)
Monfils (dad a pro footballer)
Dimitrov (dad a tennis coach, mum a volleyball player)
Khachanov (dad played 'high-level' volleyball in the Soviet)
Karatsev (dad a pro footballer)
* David Goffin. (I missed him at first, but dad was a tennis coach)
* Felix Auger-Aliassime (Missed him as well. Dad was a tennis coach)

Parents seemingly without tennis or pro sports backgrounds:
Rog Federer (remind me what his parents did for a living again)
Novak Djokovic
Daniil Medvedev
Diego Schwartzman
Berrettini
Carreno Busta
David Goffin
Jannik Sinner
Milos Raonic
Felix Auger Aliassime
Stan Wawrinka
Christian Garin
Alex de Minaur
Dan Evans
Fabio Fognini
Borna Coric

Some of them did not have readily available info on their family backgrounds, in which case I have assumed their parents weren't pro athletes / tennis players. Feel free to correct me if you have more info.

In any case, it seems that roughly half of the top 30 have parents or close family members who had backgrounds in tennis or pro sports. That seems to me a very healthy representation and suggests that it's a pretty useful advantage.
 
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I think it is, especially since tennis is ultimately still kind of a niche sport compared to football, basketball etc. The fact that the amount of pros that turn a profit just by playing tennis is in the hundreds doesn’t help things, doesn’t incentivize young athletes to play tennis past a recreational level if they’re competent at other, more lucrative sports. Having a competitive advantage and a financial safety net will always be a plus, but doubly so in sports where there’s a narrower field of participants.
 
I think it is, especially since tennis is ultimately still kind of a niche sport compared to football, basketball etc. The fact that the amount of pros that turn a profit just by playing tennis is in the hundreds doesn’t help things, doesn’t incentivize young athletes to play tennis past a recreational level if they’re competent at other, more lucrative sports. Having a competitive advantage and a financial safety net will always be a plus, but doubly so in sports where there’s a narrower field of participants.

Yes I think that is a key point.

It's also a sport that is so skill-based that it demands early exposure and high-quality training from an early age. And compared to many other sports, it's relatively expensive to pursue on a serious level and there isn't a good grassroots infrastructure. A lot of players come through the system of private academies. So being entered early into that world is probably a key advantage, as you suggest. I'd wager that even many of the list without pro tennis players were still afforded some crucial early opportunities, like Novak being sent to a tennis camp at age 4, where Jelena Gencic discovered him.
 
1. Data how this compares to other sports?
2. I think it tells you how exclusive/hard to break into tennis is, and how much investment players/parents have to put in themselves. Might be the closest to golf actually, which makes me feel dirty. All that because it's just not a very viable career path.
 
Yes I think that is a key point.

It's also a sport that is so skill-based that it demands early exposure and high-quality training from an early age. And compared to many other sports, it's relatively expensive to pursue on a serious level and there isn't a good grassroots infrastructure. A lot of players come through the system of private academies. So being entered early into that world is probably a key advantage, as you suggest. I'd wager that even many of the list without pro tennis players were still afforded some crucial early opportunities, like Novak being sent to a tennis camp at age 4, where Jelena Gencic discovered him.


I’m spit-balling here but it seems as if many sports that place a premium on hand/foot-eye coordination where physical strength/attributes and raw athleticism are of secondary rather than primary importance (so MMA/boxing/basketball where many pros started in their very late teens and up to their mid-to-late 20s are disqualified) require very early exposure to hone such skills and commit them to muscle memory before the plasticity clock starts ticking. Hard-pressed to find many pro baseball/tennis/football players that started later than 7-8.

Funny how tennis fans talk so much about natural talent (probably more so than any other sport I’ve been a fan of) when all of these impossibly talented players they cite might not have made it past the rec levels had they started at, say, 12 instead of 5. Every sport requires talent to make it to the top but it stands to reason that the ones which require an earlier start are probably less talent-dependent lol. But again, spit-balling.

Only a tangentially related observation but I’ve noticed an inordinate amount of father-son pairings in baseball as well. At one point every member of the Toronto Blue Jays infield had a father that played in the major leagues including Vlad Jr, who was the most hyped prospect in baseball and was preceded by his HOF’er father, Ken Griffey Jr/Sr at one point played on the same team, Bobby Bonds was a ‘hall of very good’ caliber player and his son was the best of his generation, etc.
 
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I’m spit-balling here but it seems as if many sports that place a premium on hand/foot-eye coordination where physical strength/attributes and raw athleticism are of secondary rather than primary importance (so MMA/Boxing/Basketball where many pros started in their very late teens and up to their mid-to-late 20s are disqualified) require very early exposure to hone such skills and commit them to muscle memory before the plasticity clock starts ticking. Hard-pressed to find many pro baseball/tennis/football players that started later than 7-8.

Funny how tennis fans talk so much about natural talent (probably more so than any other sport I’ve been a fan of) when all of these impossibly talented players they cite might not have made it past the rec levels had they started at, say, 12 instead of 5. Every sport requires talent to make it to the top but it stands to reason that the ones which require an earlier start are probably less talent-dependent lol. But again, spit-balling.

Only a tangentially related observation but I’ve noticed an inordinate amount of father-son pairings in baseball as well. At one point every member of the Toronto Blue Jays infield had a father that played in the major leagues including Vlad Jr, who was the most hyped prospect in baseball and was preceded by his HOF’er father, Ken Griffey Jr/Sr at one point played on the same team, Bobby Bonds was a ‘hall of very good’ caliber player and his son was the best of his generation, etc.
Lots of other sports examples. Just a couple off the top of my head, ice hockey has HOFers Bobby and Brett Hull; Thursday’s NFL top 10 draft picks Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain Jr had NFL dads, as did former overall #1 draft picks Peyton and Eli Manning; NBA stars Del Curry and Wendell Stephen Curry Jr.; MLB has been mentioned already but there are at least 5 three-generation families (Boones, Bells, Colemans, Scholfields and Hairstons).
 
Lots of other sports examples. Just a couple off the top of my head, ice hockey has HOFers Bobby and Brett Hull; Thursday’s NFL top 10 draft picks Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain Jr had NFL dads, as did former overall #1 draft picks Peyton and Eli Manning; NBA stars Del Curry and Wendell Stephen Curry Jr.; MLB has been mentioned already but there are at least 5 three-generation families (Boones, Bells, Colemans, Scholfields and Hairstons).


Bobby and Brett both being inner-circle Hall of Famers has always blown my mind.
 
Talking about Sinner I was recently reminded that part of his valley is the dominant force in Italian biathlon. So there is also a clear area/environment effect in some sports where athletes cluster around training facilities, structure and knowledge. Something similar existed in football in the very early days where the big teams where mostly composed of players from the city or specific quarters.

Nowadays football must have one of the highest levels of meritocracy which is shown by the high proportion of descendants of recent immigrants in European training academies. Interestingly the importance of those excellent low and high structures is also visible as often the Northern African national teams or even the Turkish team are dominated by their migrant population.

Will the parent-effect become more dominant in the future of tennis? Seems like Tennis is a sport especially suited for the descendants of professionals as exterior factors such as wealth and dedicated training and early professionalism can make more difference then in most cases...
 
Having looked more closely into the players' backgrounds, I discovered a couple of more that I had originally missed. Both Goffin and Felix are now moved up into the "tennis coach parents" column. This means that players with tennis player, pro athlete or tennis coach parents are now in the majority in the top 30 -- 16 to 14 so far.

****
Then, perhaps more obvious, there is also the class aspect of it. Tennis is still a rich person's sport that is expensive to pursue on a high level.

When going through the backgrounds of the 30 players, it was readily apparent that most of them come from comfortable, well-off or at least solidly middle class backgrounds.

Several of them had doctor parents, such as PCB, Karatsev and Khachanov. Nadal's dad owns several businesses. Fognini is the son of a businessman. Fritz's family is famously well-off. Medvedev's parents were part of the intelligentsia in Russia, and his dad is a prominent computer scientist (which explains why Daniil also looks like a soviet geek scientist). Casper Ruud hails from the most affluent area of Norway. Fed's parents worked for pharmaceutical companies (or so I have been told). Raonic is the son of two engineers, and so is Garin. RBA is the son of a banker and storeowner. A surprising number have parents in the restaurant industry, lol (Djokovic, Sinner, De Minaur, Nadal).

A select few of them do come from entirely ordinary backgrounds, though. Stan Wawrinka is the son of two farmers, who combine the farmwork with working with intellectually disabled people (good for them). Daniel 'evo' Evans is the son of an electrician and a nurse. The real working class heroes of the ATP, I suppose.
 
I don’t think it’s that surprising. A big part of making it as a professional athlete is being able to live like a pro from a pretty early age. So focusing on the game above any competing interests, making time to train consistently and properly, finding the best coaches available, eating and sleeping right, travelling all over for tournaments.

So you either have to have supportive portents who can figure that stuff out, or if you have parents who are experienced as athletes they will know how important all those pieces are right away.

In other sports like soccer they have academies who take kids on full time scholarships from age 7, but in tennis it really boils down to the players support system a lot of the time
 
There are farmers and farmers. According to this Swiss article the farm is with the chateau an donation to harbour disabled people, so it is mostly likely not their property. His male line fled after the war to Germany but Stan grew up as a Romand, a French-speaking Swiss. That specific migration background makes property in Switzerland less likely.

Sinner is working class too, although a good deal of wealth depends on property see my comments about farmers, but they certainly don't own that resteraunt. I guess that Piatti must have offered favourable conditions to Sinners parents, he immediatly saw his talent and squeezed a slot in. Jannik himself says that right now he invests his earnings into his career.

So the strong local network provided early opportunities in many sports and shone a light on that young talent. Seppi, as a fellow from South Tyrol is often mentioned as an early idol, and his trainer Sartori facilitated the contact with Piatti.
 
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breaking news:

Tennis needs coach parents or wealthy parents (or both)

And on top of it genetics, luck (avoiding injuries, closing breakpoints in first challengers or itf) AND talent
 
I wonder what proportion of concert pianists had parents and/or close relations who were professional musicians, music teachers or had at least studied to a high level?
I wonder what proportion of the rest were suitably wealthy that they could afford to pay for regular, high quality lessons for their offspring starting from a very early age?
I would guess pretty similar.
 
However, don't let this distract you from the fact that he is but a humble fisherman, working class hero and people's champion (rip) at heart.

Hmm. Rafa himself says in his autobiography that his father created the conditions for his family to live well.

"Rafa: My Story", 2010:
¤¤ Toni has never received any money from me or from anyone in the family for the lifelong attention he's dedicated to me, but he's been able to do it because he owns half of my father's business, and takes half the profits, without doing any of the work. It's been a fair exchange because I would never have had anything like the same hours of coaching from Toni if my father had not worked with such purpose all his life.
...
His [Rafa's father] personality is the polar opposite of Toni's. Toni is a big talker, a philosopher; my father is a listener and a pragmatist. Toni has opinions, my father makes decisions, always with a clear head. ...But my father, two years older than Toni, has started one business after another from scratch; ...He's employed dozens of people in his various businesses and created the conditions for us to live well and for Toni to dedicate himself to me.¤¤
 
So, you are saying having parents in Pharma is not an advantage ? Asking for somebody
When you work in Pharma, where obviously everyone has access to everyone else in the field, it's very easy to have success in sport, you just have to call the Doping department and ask for a happy doping box for your son.
 
There are farmers and farmers. According to this Swiss article the farm is with the chateau an donation to harbour disabled people, so it is mostly likely not their property. His male line fled after the war to Germany but Stan grew up as a Romand, a French-speaking Swiss. That specific migration background makes property in Switzerland less likely.

Sinner is working class too, although a good deal of wealth depends on property see my comments about farmers, but they certainly don't own that resteraunt. I guess that Piatti must have offered favourable conditions to Sinners parents, he immediatly saw his talent and squeezed a slot in. Jannik himself says that right now he invests his earnings into his career.

So the strong local network provided early opportunities in many sports and shone a light on that young talent. Seppi, as a fellow from South Tyrol is often mentioned as an early idol, and his trainer Sartori facilitated the contact with Piatti.
You are right, Stan's parents are (or were, they might be retired now) managers in the center, they were not a wealthy family. Low to average middle class by Swiss standards, I would say. Rogi is from a average to upper middle class, but his family could not be described as wealthy - still, by 'rich European country' standards, which means that you own a house and one or two cars, go on vacations twice a year and go skiing during winter weekends, but certainly do not own a mansion with a private tennis court or a yacht.
 
In Switzerland, if you want to become a professional tennis player, I guess you have to find the money in the private sector. There is a center for gifted young athletes, where Yves Allegro is in charge of tennis, but it's a small structure. The country doesn't put a lot of money in supporting athletes.
 
Hmm. Rafa himself says in his autobiography that his father created the conditions for his family to live well.

"Rafa: My Story", 2010:
¤¤ Toni has never received any money from me or from anyone in the family for the lifelong attention he's dedicated to me, but he's been able to do it because he owns half of my father's business, and takes half the profits, without doing any of the work. It's been a fair exchange because I would never have had anything like the same hours of coaching from Toni if my father had not worked with such purpose all his life.
...
His [Rafa's father] personality is the polar opposite of Toni's. Toni is a big talker, a philosopher; my father is a listener and a pragmatist. Toni has opinions, my father makes decisions, always with a clear head. ...But my father, two years older than Toni, has started one business after another from scratch; ...He's employed dozens of people in his various businesses and created the conditions for us to live well and for Toni to dedicate himself to me.¤¤
You left out the part where Roger Federer's parents worked for a pharmaceutical company. OP even wanted reminding.
 
The importance of the local clubs in parts of Europe should also not be underestimated, especially for the youngest age range. There can be a lot of pride in the youngsters of an area which can help talented kids a lot. Djokovic profited greatly from it

Djokovic began playing tennis at the age of four,[14] when his parents sent him to a tennis camp in Novi Sad,[13] as his parents had not played any tennis in the past.[15] In the summer of 1993, before attending primary school, the six-year-old was sent to a tennis camp organized by the Teniski Klub Partizan[15] and overseen by Yugoslav tennis player Jelena Genčić,[16] at Mount Kopaonik, where Djokovic's parents ran a fast-food parlour[17] and a sports equipment business.[13] Upon seeing the child Djokovic playing tennis, she stated: "This is the greatest talent I have seen since Monica Seles."[15]

Genčić worked with young Djokovic over the following six years before realizing that, due to his rapid development, going abroad in search of increased level of competition was the best option for his future. To that end, she contacted Nikola Pilić and in September 1999 the 12-year-old moved to the Pilić tennis academy in Oberschleißheim, Germany, spending four years there.[18]

BTW Djokovics German is somewhat rusty but likely better then Wawrinkas which seems very French in this regard :) Kudos also for his Italian which he likely uses more. ! Federer has greatly improved his French over the teenage years due to his training location.
 
Parents seemingly without tennis or pro sports backgrounds:
Rog Federer (remind me what his parents did for a living again)
Novak Djokovic
Daniil Medvedev
Diego Schwartzman
Berrettini
Carreno Busta
David Goffin
Jannik Sinner
Milos Raonic
Felix Auger Aliassime
Stan Wawrinka
Christian Garin
Alex de Minaur
Dan Evans
Fabio Fognini
Borna Coric
Novak's dad and uncle were pro ski instructors. Not 100% sure about mother, she might have been too.
 
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So, you are saying having parents in Pharma is not an advantage ? Asking for somebody

It's a start but the final piece of the puzzle to make your breakthrough from a flashy but low-achieving player with stamina issues to an unbeatable tireless tennis machine, in the space of 12 months, is to start working with a pro-soccer coach. As we all know just how clean that sport is.
 
Awesome thread.

Now, athleticism may be evident in families whose members have played some sport at high level but easy to see in youngsters whose whole families have done nothing too. Motor skills, agility and the desire to win can be seen with a naked eye. This is where the tennis coaches, whose kids have signed in for so much money, have to step in hard and do the real job. Having the priviledge to coach a kid that has already rocked in youth tennis is one thing, bringing a child up into the youth stardom is another. Which one do you think is more rewarding; the one in which you line up your pockets or the one in which you actually create a fine player?
 
Hmm. Rafa himself says in his autobiography that his father created the conditions for his family to live well.
Oh Octo, please....

The Nadal family has been the second richest family in Mallorca long before Rafa was even born, as you well know. The family's net worth is in the hundreds of millions (aside from Rafa). You know that Sebastian is the owner of an extremely lucrative insurance company, the elite window company Vidres Mallorca and the restaurant Sa Punta. Among many other business endeavors.
 
Oh Octo, please....

The Nadal family has been the second richest family in Mallorca long before Rafa was even born, as you well know. The family's net worth is in the hundreds of millions (aside from Rafa). You know that Sebastian is the owner of an extremely lucrative insurance company, the elite window company Vidres Mallorca and the restaurant Sa Punta. Among many other business endeavors.
I wonder why you addressed your post to me. o_O o_O You should have addressed it to the poster I replied to:

E0ZTdFKWUAULRmA
 
The importance of the local clubs in parts of Europe should also not be underestimated, especially for the youngest age range. There can be a lot of pride in the youngsters of an area which can help talented kids a lot. Djokovic profited greatly from it



BTW Djokovics German is somewhat rusty but likely better then Wawrinkas which seems very French in this regard :) Kudos also for his Italian which he likely uses more. ! Federer has greatly improved his French over the teenage years due to his training location.
That link of Novak speaking german was really cool! I didn't know he could also speak german. He is overall good with languages, but that one really surprised me. In deed rusty vocabulary-wise, but relatively fluent when it comes to sentence structure. I haven't heard Wawrinka speaking german; only french and english.

Edit: In the second link, that Fognini guy is very fluent in italian!
 
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Some further information on the Sinners path to sportive blessings. Written by the trainer of Seppi, which established the link with the Piatti Tennis Center so it comes directly from one source. Heri Mayr and Andrea Spizzica trained an especially talented boy and arranged one day a match against Seppi which was not well so Sartori himself faced him. He left the court totally exhausted after an hour against the 13 year old:

Often trainers and parents want me to evaluate a kids prospects but when I saw him I knew at once that he was special...

The other fortune was that Heri Mayr is a trainer of great intelligence which understood that Bordighera was an opportunity not to be missed and that we had the knowledge and experience to nature a young talent

After having decided with Piatti that the boy was worthy investing into I went to the mountain restaurant which they managed. They asked why I wanted to take him away.

Interesting bit about the way the interaction worked, with the initiative mostly taken by local trainers and then Seppis.
 
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Federer had no tennis or even sports background. He is just rare born genius.
Hmm. Sources say that "Tennis was a common interest in Roger Federer’s family and everyone enjoyed the sport. Growing up, along with tennis, Federer’s parents also introduced him to play squash, basketball, soccer, among other sports."
 
Hmm. Sources say that "Tennis was a common interest in Roger Federer’s family and everyone enjoyed the sport. Growing up, along with tennis, Federer’s parents also introduced him to play squash, basketball, soccer, among other sports."

That's hardly a sports background. Everyone loves to watch some kind of sport. I expected better argument from someone smart as you.
 
Hmm. Rafa himself says in his autobiography that his father created the conditions for his family to live well.

"Rafa: My Story", 2010:
¤¤ Toni has never received any money from me or from anyone in the family for the lifelong attention he's dedicated to me, but he's been able to do it because he owns half of my father's business, and takes half the profits, without doing any of the work. It's been a fair exchange because I would never have had anything like the same hours of coaching from Toni if my father had not worked with such purpose all his life.
...
His [Rafa's father] personality is the polar opposite of Toni's. Toni is a big talker, a philosopher; my father is a listener and a pragmatist. Toni has opinions, my father makes decisions, always with a clear head. ...But my father, two years older than Toni, has started one business after another from scratch; ...He's employed dozens of people in his various businesses and created the conditions for us to live well and for Toni to dedicate himself to me.¤¤

Nadal devotee, do you understand the logical contradiction here?
1. Toni has never received any money from me or from anyone in the family
2. [Toni] takes half the profits, without doing any of the work
 
Thought it would be interesting to do a quick check of the family backgrounds of the top 30.

It seems a reasonable assumption to me that the vast majority of people who play tennis do not have parents who were pro tennis players, pro athletes or tennis coaches, as these are all rare professions overall. But it also appears to me that players with parents in these groups are overrepresented at the top of the game.


Parents who played pro tennis:
Alex Zverev (both parents were pros).
Tsitsipas (both parents were high-level players and coahces)
Casper Ruud (dad was top 50)
Taylor Fritz (both parents were pros, mother was top 10 on the WTA)
Shapovalov (mother on Soviet national tennis team)
Hurkacz (mother a Polish junior champ, both uncles were tennis players)

Parents or close family who were pro athletes or tennis coaches:
Rafa Nadal (uncle on Spain's national football team and Toni was a tennis coach)
Domi Thiem (both parents tennis coaches)
Andrey Rublev (dad a pro boxer, mother a tennis coach)
Bautista Agut (dad a pro footballer)
Monfils (dad a pro footballer)
Dimitrov (dad a tennis coach, mum a volleyball player)
Khachanov (dad played 'high-level' volleyball in the Soviet)
Karatsev (dad a pro footballer)
* David Goffin. (I missed him at first, but dad was a tennis coach)
* Felix Auger-Aliassime (Missed him as well. Dad was a tennis coach)

Parents seemingly without tennis or pro sports backgrounds:
Rog Federer (remind me what his parents did for a living again)
Novak Djokovic
Daniil Medvedev
Diego Schwartzman
Berrettini
Carreno Busta
David Goffin
Jannik Sinner
Milos Raonic
Felix Auger Aliassime
Stan Wawrinka
Christian Garin
Alex de Minaur
Dan Evans
Fabio Fognini
Borna Coric

Some of them did not have readily available info on their family backgrounds, in which case I have assumed their parents weren't pro athletes / tennis players. Feel free to correct me if you have more info.

In any case, it seems that roughly half of the top 30 have parents or close family members who had backgrounds in tennis or pro sports. That seems to me a very healthy representation and suggests that it's a pretty useful advantage.

do you have data how parents working in pharma business impact chances of becoming a successful tennis player?
 
Nadal devotee, do you understand the logical contradiction here?
1. Toni has never received any money from me or from anyone in the family
2. [Toni] takes half the profits, without doing any of the work
The point is that Rafa's father has made good money.
 
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