Greg Rusedski

So my father thought, okay, let's hire a physical trainer in the 1980s to get him as quick as possible.

So I was running track at the university with the track coach there, doing speed work like boxers do, and then trying to find the best coaches in America.

So this became not only my passion, but his passion as well.

And without that father who was into it, obsessed with it, there is not a chance I would have had the career I had.

Yeah, I've been here many years now.

My daughter's at university, my son's at school here.

They're 20 and 16, and I've been married 26 years, if you can believe that now.

Living in London.

I've read it, and it's quite...

inside because i think most people don't understand what it's like being on the lower levels especially being on the futures and the challengers and trying to make ends meet the stress it can put on the family and i thought that was an excellent book because he was very truthful about his situation and how difficult it was and the pressure and expectation he felt yeah and the reason i mention it in the context of our conversation is that um

Well, I've been writing a book and I've been away the last year writing about it.

And I've been kind of reflecting on those things.

And if you take 99 of the top hundred men, 99 of the top hundred women, they all have the same story, obsessional parent, willing to risk it all.

But you have to have that

a little bit of talent, but you have to have that insatiable drive to be better than anybody.

And if you look at the greats, they usually figure it out sooner than other, like I'm talking about the Djokovic's, the Murray's, the Agassi's, the Federer's, and they just figure it out sooner.

And they're also technically more sound

from a young age.

So one example I give is Tommy Haas.

I saw him at Voluntary Academy when I was 17 and he was 12.