Child athletes and actors often attract accusations of parents pushing their kids to fulfill their adult dreams of fame. The parents of 5-year-old Zachary Svajda, who is one of a number of very good and very young tennis players featured in the current issue of Tennis magazine, said they sometimes must defend their son’s love of the sport.
“About 90 percent of the comments are negative,” said Zach’s father Tom of Pacific Beach. “Everyone has their own opinions about how young is too young to have a child focus on one sport.”
Tennis parents are especially vulnerable to criticism and being viewed under a microscope because of the opportunity to make money while their kids are still teenagers.
Former tour player Jennifer Capriati had endorsement deals worth millions of dollars at the age of 14 without having hit a ball in a professional tournament. At the time, it immediately raised the question of who purchased the Capriati family home, the teenage daughter or the parents.
Because there is so much money in professional sports, parents with child athletes tend to receive far more scrutiny than those who have children learning to play a musical instrument, chess and cheerleading even though they may require as many hours of practice.
In Zach’s case, his father Tom and mother Anita are taking a more wait-and-see attitude.
“We have had offers to put Zach in tennis academies in France, Spain and Florida,” Tom said. “Instead, we keep him at home and enrolled in a public school (Kate Sessions) so he can still maintain a somewhat normal life as a young boy.”
Although his schedule may not appear very normal to many people, Zach is at the Pacific Beach Tennis Club Mondays through Saturdays, either playing or taking lessons.
In addition, Technifibre, a major tennis and squash equipment company based in France, recently agreed to sponsor Zach with clothing, racquets and related supplies.
While that type of schedule and sponsorship are likely to raise some eyebrows and fuel the usual complaint of parents living out a fantasy through their child, Tom has a different perspective.
While his son plays tennis after school, other kids go home and spend hours playing video games.
“He plays because he asks to play,” he said. “Zach also plays basketball and T-ball. He is getting exercise instead of going home and sitting on the couch watching television.”
Zach’s interest in tennis began, according to his father, when he and his wife would take him to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center while they played tennis. He was 6 months old at the time. Then when he was about 18 months old and attending the Baldwin Academy, he started to say the word “tennis.” One thing led to another, and now Zach is considered one of the best tennis players for someone his age in the world.
Yet his father, who played junior tennis at a national level, and his mother, who was a competitive softball player, keep it all in the proper perspective.
“Right now, Zach is a very good 5-year old tennis player,” he said. “That is all. We are not going to know anything until he is at least 15 or 16 years old. We know he will be good, just not how good.”
Similar thoughts are echoed by Zach’s coach, Matt Hanlin, head professional at the Pacific Beach Tennis Club who has been coaching him since the age of 2.
“Nobody makes predictions of someone at age 5,” Hanlin said. “Maybe when you reach age 10 and start to get some attention, but even then it is a shot in the dark.”
Hanlin speaks from some experience as well. Once ranked in the top 500 in the world, he also spent seven years coaching at the well-known Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
“I practiced with the best of the best: Venus and Serena Williams, Anna Kournikova, Tommy Haas, Maria Sharapova and many others,” he said. “But I worked with them when they were around age 10, not 5. It is very hard to predict what will happen.”
Yet given Zach’s age, Hanlin is impressed with his skill level.
“He is phenomenally talented and has a great deal of fun when he is on the tennis court. I try to make it interesting and exciting for him,” he said
In terms of competition, again his father is proceeding slowly.
“Zach will not play in any tournaments anytime soon,” Tom said. “It will not bother me if he is not the best 12- or 14-year-old tennis player. If at any time he wants to stop and move on to another activity, then we are done with tennis.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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