Greg Rusedski

This is an Irish Independent Podcast.

There was.

It was a little bit of good fortune to start off with as well.

So I was six.

I was playing with my brother in the local park courts.

The coach came up to my dad and said, I think your younger son has something.

My father, being in quality control, having worked for the railroad, said to her, well, are you trying to sell me lessons or what do you actually see?

And she said, look, he can throw a ball very well.

He's got immense focus because you can see his concentration and so forth.

So there's skills to play on.

My dad asked, well, how do you have this knowledge as a park coach?

She said, well, my son is one of the best under 10 juniors in the world, beating Agassi, Sampras, Chang, and Currier.

And growing up in Montreal, there weren't really

Canadian tennis players in the male game to look up to.

And so that was a bit of luck for us to start into it.

And then from there on in, my father himself, he wanted to be a tennis player, but never had the opportunity because it's expensive.

You'd have to pay for indoor courts.

My grandparents, my grandfather worked on the docks.

My grandmother was a cleaning lady.

So there was no chance they could afford that journey for my father.