Four-Year-Old Phenom Shocks Tennis Community
July 11, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Tennis
A four-year-old Australian girl named Mia Lines could be the next big tennis star. She definitely looks like she’s got amazing skills for such a young player and I know that I certainly couldn’t do any better!
Her father is so keen to support her budding talents that he called on famed tennis trainer, Rick Macci, who is associated with big names including Venus Williams and Serena Williams, Andy Roddick, Tommy Ho, Maria Sharapova and Jennifer Capriati (it was fun to see pictures of all of these stars as young players on Rick Macci’s website!).
Macci’s assessment was very encouraging. Of Mia, he said that he’s “never seen anybody with feet like [hers]” and she has “very good hand-eye coordination. For four, it’s uncanny. This is the scariest little creature I’ve ever seen.”
Of course, some people might conclude, from listening to what Mia’s father has to say, that she was conditioned and pushed to become a tennis player rather than having the skill develop naturally. He said he even hung tennis balls over her crib when she was a newborn.
Whatever the case, she’s already a great tennis player so I would be surprised if we start hearing about Mia Lines in the next ten years.
image: Tennis-Warehouse
I think they need to be careful that they don’t push the child to do what they want, not what she wants. Either way she certainly looks very promising.