British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

From a recent article in The Sunday Times about the cost and process for raisining young tennis 'champions-to-be':


One of those is Liv Zingg from Barnes in southwest London although shes speaking to me from Nairobi, where shes just triumphed in an International Tennis Federation tournament.

The 14-year-old, who started playing with friends, aged 5, in a Notting Hill park, has recently taken a big step on the path to going pro: leaving home.

She and her mother, Nicole, a former figure skater and until recently Livs fitness coach, first moved to Mallorca, where Liv had a scholarship at the Rafa Nadal Academy. Now theyre at the Francesca Schiavone training facility in northern Italy, which her family is paying for with the help of Tennis First (academies can cost £40,000-£60,000 a year).

Livs days are carefully structured. I do three hours of tennis and three hours of fitness. On Wednesdays, a physio comes. And we always break from 12-2pm the Italians like their lunch.

She is happy, but there are sacrifices that come with not living a regular teenage life leaving friends behind, being home schooled, only seeing her dad and sister during holidays or if she has a tournament in the UK. I started doing trips at 12 and I had trouble with staying away from home. I was crying. I was kind of bullied at one stage too. But Ive got used to it, she says.

In September shes going to join the acclaimed National Tennis Academy in Loughborough, with a fully funded package including schooling, meals, accommodation, travel and coaching. It will mean living by herself for the first time and sharing dorms with her peers (ie the competition).

Ill be able to go home every weekend and its only two hours away, so I think Ill be OK, she says.

Her commitment is, at least, paying off. Liv is ranked third in Europe for her age, plays for Britain and has been invited to take part in the prestigious under-14s tournament at Wimbledon during the championships. Oh, and she signed with talent agency IMG at the age of 12; thats 6 years earlier than Jack Draper.

On Instagram shes known as Super Liv and has 4,000 followers. One recent post read, You accept it. Cry it out if you need to, then force a smile. You move on. Be relentless. Adapt and grow. Work harder. Work smarter.
Although, Liv says, Ive never posted anything myself; thats all my mum.

Her dream? To become world No 1 and hold the record for winning the most grand slams. That would be cool.