Tennis / Golf
FCC stars discuss what it takes to be a champion
By Elizabeth Bush
Apr 17, 2008 - 1:31:03 PM

Jankovic

How do you get to be one of the top women tennis players in the world?

Surely, raw talent mixed with a healthy dose of grit and determination has a lot to do with it. But if you ask Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic, and Marion Bartoli – champions in hot pursuit of this week’s Family Circle Cup (FCC) title on Daniel Island– there is one ingredient that stands out above the rest. Quite simply, they’re in it to win it.

"It’s about setting your priorities straight," said No. 2 FCC seed Sharapova, who gathered with her fellow tennis greats at the all-access media hour held earlier this week at the Family Circle Tennis Center. "My priority has always been tennis. It’s what I love. I play tennis because of the competition. It’s where my character comes out."

"I am number three in the world at the moment," added Jankovic, last year’s Family Circle Cup champion. "My dream is to become number one."

"It takes a lot," said Bartoli, who started playing tennis at age 6 in her native, France. "It takes commitment. It takes a lot of belief and a lot of work…I think it depends on how you want to be, and where you want to be. And me, always since I was at the age to play whatever game, I wanted to be a winner and number one."

For each of these talented women, the success story is similar. All picked up rackets and began playing the sport at an early age, each coached and encouraged by a close family member.

Sharapova

Sharapova was just shy of her seventh birthday when her father brought her to the United States from Russia in 1995, according to her official Web site. With just $700 between them and unable to speak English, they settled in Florida in hopes of enrolling Maria at the famed Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton. Her father diligently coached her himself for two years, working different jobs to help meet expenses, before she landed a full scholarship to the academy.

"At the end of the day…it was all dedication," said Sharapova, currently ranked No. 5 in the world. "Waking up every single morning and going out there and hitting as many balls as your coach tells you to. Being surrounded by smart people, that’s also important. To have the right guidance and direction. People that, depending on your age, know what you have to do at a specific point in your career."

There were other sacrifices as well. Sharapova’s mother was not able to join them at first, and had to stay back in Russia to finish college and await a visa.

"There were a lot of difficult days," she said. "I didn’t see my mom for a couple of years…Now I would never be able to do that, but when I was that young it was sort of OK. We didn’t have cell phones back then so I could only write mail to her. There were many days when my dad would be working many hours away and I’d be living in a dormitory with older kids…I was the only young one there."

Bartoli, coached by her father, has also had to weather the ups and downs of training in the sport.

"You have to travel all the time," said Bartoli, the No. 6 seed in the 2008 Family Circle Cup. "You’re almost never at home. You have those kinds of feelings where you can be so high some days and so down other days. But in our job, it’s just one week you play great and you’re really happy and the next day you play awful and (your mood) goes down."

Fortunately, for tennis champions, things usually don’t stay down for long.

Bartoli

"You want to be at the top and, of course, you have some days where you feel like you’ve just practiced so much and it’s kind of boring," said Bartoli, who has 13 career titles thus far and has earned more than $2.6 million in prize money. "But then you see those trophies and you see those…players winning the grand slams and you just want to be there. So you take your racket and you get back on that court."

Jankovic, seeded No. 1 in this year’s Family Circle Cup, has seven world titles in her crown. Staying ahead of the pack has a lot to do with ambition, she said.

"You need to have goals. You need to keep going after your goals and have dreams that one day you’ll make it. That’s what I did…Just believing in yourself is the most important thing. Because if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will."

Jankovic’s 2007 Family Circle Cup win helped set the stage for one of her most successful years yet.

"I had a great year last year with good results," said the Serbian native, who was introduced to tennis at age 9 by her older brother. "I won this tournament and obviously gained a lot of confidence for the rest of the clay season and the rest of the year. So things are going well for me now. I cannot complain and I just want to continue to work hard and to do good things. We’ll see how things will go for me."

For Sharapova, who has earned close to $12 million in prize money throughout her career, that same ambition and confidence have translated into a lucrative career off the court as well. With endorsements for big name brands such as Gatorade, Tropicana, Canon, Tag Heuer and Nike, she is now listed by Forbes magazine as one of the richest female athletes in the world.

"Tennis has brought me so many things that you never know are going to come," said Sharapova. "…On a daily basis, I’m learning more about business than I learned in an economy class for two years in high school!"

Despite the hard work along the way, this tennis champion, one who has certainly left her mark on the sport, wouldn’t have it any other way.

"…To be talented at what I do in tennis and actually be able to get a chance to go out on center court in front of thousands of people and compete and try to win a tennis match, for me, is fulfilling," said Sharapova. "And I don’t feel like anything can take its place."

No matter what the scoreboard says at this week’s Family Circle Cup, Sharapova plans to come away with a victory.

"Win or lose, learn things," she said. "If you come from a match and you’re either a winner or loser but you don’t feel like you’ve learned anything, I don’t think you’ve gained anything either."

Spoken like a true champion.