Britain's Anne Keothavong and brother James Keothavong talk about their journey into the tennis world in an interview to The Daily Mail. While Anne Keothavong became a successful player on the WTA Tour, reaching the Top 50 in the world rankings, and is now captain of the British Fed Cup team, brother James Keothavong is one of the top chair umpires in the game.
In the interview, James and Anne Keothavong talk about growing up with their parents and working on their tennis background. James recalls, 'I will never forget how many miles and adventures we had in that car. It wasn't the prettiest vehicle but it got us from A to B and that's all we needed. We knew we were different and the condescending looks we received just spurred us on. When he (my dad) first came to England in the mid-seventies he watched Wimbledon on the TV and was adamant he would go and watch in person too. He just fell in love with the game, had never played it before. In particular, he fell in love with Chris Evert, like a lot of men back in the day and he resolved that if he ever had children he would like to get them involved in tennis.'
Anne recalls, "I initially got dragged along because James started playing short tennis. We played wherever we could. We went to an indoor pay and play centre in Islington and sometimes Highbury Fields but we played more than anywhere at Hackney Downs. They are much better courts now than when we first went there, for sure. Because we didn't have much money we would share an hour's lesson per week. Dad had different jobs, working at Hamley's the toy shop, Amnesty international, in the accounts at Barclays. There were times when he wasn't working, and looking back there must have been a huge amount of pressure on him to provide for us. When we started winning prize money it would go straight back into our tennis. My parents couldn't speak English at first and were starting from rock bottom, living on the top floor of a block of flats with four children. They still live there now and refuse to move, that's where our history is and we all love going back there. The thing I remember clearly is our parents saying we are doing this because we want you to have a better life than us. I'm more comfortable talking about it now than I was when I was playing. We went to very much an inner city school, a lot of the kids didn't have much opportunity. We were lucky we came from a tight-knit family. My parents made sure we got the work done, although at times I resented the way I had to be working all the time or playing tennis.'
Having realised he did not have the potential to make it as a tennis professional, James decided to move to officiate. "I was 16 when I worked my first Wimbledon in 1999 as a line judge. The LTA and the All England Club had set up an initiative in search of younger eyes as line officials. I was fortunate to pass the recruitment process and got selected - I have worked every Wimbledon since then. It was a struggle at first but I wanted to see the world and luckily I progressed swiftly and ended up attaining my gold badge (the elite group of 30 umpires on the circuit) in 2011.'
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2ZIF4Ry
Tennis
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