imoen wrote:

---

I guess that there is some sort of genetic/inherited ability to play sport. A tendancy towards athleticism and the required skills, eg hand/eye co-ordination. (I believe I've read something sciencey that collaborates this and you can see there are sporting families across different sports - the bubka family springs to mind for tennis/pole vaulting).

---

There was a programme by the BBC last year asking the same question - Colin Jackson was trying to find out whether his (and indeed others') talent in sports was down to his genetics or his upbringing and training. Naturally the conclusion was that it was a mixture of both.

Cross-sports families including tennis players? Sure. As you mentioned, the Bubkas - Sergei Sr in pole-vaulting, his wife was an international gymnast, and their son Bubka Jr is our tennis player. Junior's elder brother, Vitaliy, played tennis for a while too, but didn't have the same kind of success and gave it up, he's now a businessman. Nadal of course - his uncle being a football player, and he had the chance to go into football himself but chose tennis. Andy in the same situation - had a chance to go into football but chose tennis, having had a relative that was a footballer. Djokovic too had a chance to go into football, and his family were skiers, he admits that he nearly chose skiing over tennis. Dimitrov's mother was an international volleyball player, and Marchenko's elder brother was an ice skater in the Winter Olympics.

So more common than you might think.