All It Takes Is A Racket And A Dream By Steve Kaplan
Photo credit: Darren Carroll/USTA
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widely circulating news story and USTA post reveals that a teacher once told U.S. Open Women's Singles finalist Leylah Fernandez to quit tennis and focus on school because she would never make it. Fernandez used this teacher’s skepticism as rocketfueled inspiration to drive herself to succeed. Fernandez clearly is a winner, and winners turn lemons into lemonade. The meteoric rise of both Fernandez and champion Emma Raducanu is truly inspiring, but is this aspect of Fernandez’s story the healthiest area for the industry to focus on to inspire young players? The superficial take away from this anecdote is that we should rise above those who doubt us and follow our dreams, but when we dig deeper, is there more to this story? I went to High School with a 28
young man named "Doug" who, to be kind, was not the highest academic achiever.In our High School Yearbook he wrote, "I'm going to win the lottery." Doug didn't go to college, but instead he worked at a local bar. Two years later, to all our amazement, Doug actually won the lottery! His quote in the newspaper after winning was classic: "Two million dollars sure buys a lot of beer and pretzels." Imagine a New York State Lottery post featuring Doug which reads: "A teacher told me to stop playing the lotto and focus on school. I'm glad they told me this because I used these words to motivate me to buy more tickets to prove them wrong. Lotto: Follow Your Dreams!" Is Doug's story more unlikely than Leylah's? Maybe not, and before
Long Island Tennis Magazine • November/December 2021 • LITennisMag.com
dismissing this idea consider, as Arthur Ashe pointed out, that the odds of a tennis player getting to a Slam Final are probably greater that the odds of winning the lottery. Ashe famously said, "The world over 50 million children start playing tennis, five million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5,000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, four to the semifinal, two to the finals...” This is not to suggest that Leylah or Emma are lucky to have their success, they earned it through hard work, dedication, self-belief and a great support system. They are very lucky. however, to have the rare talent that could make their efforts pay off in such spectacular fashion. Many try to get to where they have gotten, but
