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SHAKY FOUNDATION – PART 1

I remember qualifying for the U14 Orange Bowl World Championships in Miami, Florida in the mid 90’s. I had never seen so many good tennis players at one site. I felt very intimidated by the quality of the players I would see practicing or playing on every court. Even Anna Kournikova was there with her entourage! I can distinctly recall the final between two players who, 10 years later, would be top 100 on the ATP world rankings. And you know what? Their games were almost identical to that of their 14-year-old selves!

Have you ever seen the YouTube clip of Nadal vs. Gasquet at 13 years old? You can clearly see that most of their game was already set by this stage of their development. Nadal hit a lot more backhands than we see now, but obviously once he turned into the physical beast he is today, his game went to a stratospheric level.