Tennis fathers have won only 10 of the last 115 grand slam titles.
Most new fathers say the kid has changed their life. However, they are often reluctant to explain how, whether the change is good or bad.
In sport, however, it is easier to measure a change in your personal life, and break it up in terms of the results achieved. Curiously, tennis does not seem to take parenthood too kindly.
Tennis fathers have won only 10 of the last 115 grand slam titles. In the last 29 years, only eight men have captured a Grand Slam title after the birth of a child “changed their life”. The statistic becomes more dismal at a closer look. Four of the triumphant fathers — Pat Cash, Andres Gomez, Petr Korda and Albert Costa — were one-slam wonders. Boris Becker, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Andre Agassi won several Grand Slams, but each of them won no more than one after starting — presumably — nappy duties.
Jimmy Connors was the only singles player to successfully combine family life with the grind of being fully active on the circuit. The man who brought a prize fighter’s attitude to the tennis court won three of his eight grand slam titles after the birth of his son Brett in August 1979.
Few other champions of that era could cope half as well as Connors did. The titles dried up for John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg soon after they welcomed the stork.
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It has not been much better for women. The last time a mother won a singles grand slam crown was in 1980: Australian Evonne Goolagong at Wimbledon.
No wonder then that the tennis world is holding its breath as Roger Federer’s girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec prepares to go into labour this summer. Fellow tennis professional Ivan Ljubicic, who has a five-month-old son, says his life has changed completely. Will Federer’s change enough to prevent him from equalling and then breaking Pete Sampras’s record of 14 grand slam titles?
Federer, 27, is ready for fatherhood and says he would like to enter it early enough to let his son watch him play. Hopefully, the son will also be able to watch him win.
The signs are not very good. On Friday, Federer smashed his racket in frustration — highly uncharacteristic — as he succumbed to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in the semi-final of the Sony Ericsson Open. With 47 unforced errors, the Swiss looked a shadow of his old dominant self. The temperament may become more fragile if he has to stay awake at nights.
After all, several colleagues believe that your columnist is holding on to his day job (writing this column is an-hour-a-week affair), which requires long hours in office, primarily because he does not have to worry about the demands of a family.