Father and sons

In football, athletics, cricket and several other sports it has been seen quite a lot that son takes on the footsteps of father. Jamie and Harry Redknapp, Frank and Frank Lampard, Chris and Stuart Broad, and we can also find few more examples. But surprisingly I have not heard of any famous father and son combo in tennis. When Staeffi married Agassi I thought that their kids will defo rule the tennis world because of their genes. I remember that there was once talks of Becker and Steffi getting married so that Germany can have a future champion as well. So what matters for kids to take it from their dads or mom. Djoko and Nadal both come from sports family but different sports.

Does it give you added avantage if you come from already successful sports background or is it easier to break newer grounds when slate is empty?

Phil Dent and Taylor Dent.

Vijay/Anand Amritraj and Prakash Amritraj.

Dolgopolov (used to travel with his father). Bogomolov as well.

Sometimes it helps to have a specific sport in the family for guidance.

We have a different example of Gulbis (father and son), Bubka (father and son) picking different sports.

Agassi was related to Pancho, by virtue of his sister Rita being married to Pancho.

Patrick McEnroe has been a successful player under the shadow of John.

Davydenko (under Eduardo), Istomin under his mother, Young under his parents, Wozniacki under Piotr, Sharapova, Bartoli, Lisicki, etc.

Thanks LF, but there has been no double successes like Connors' son or Mcnroe's son.

And also if you look at Federer then he came from a total new background and started without any pedigree. What I think that if you are a son of famous father then it adds extra pressure on you and the work ethic also misses because you get everything by the virtue of father being very rich and famous.

Most of the examples given by you are also ran and not the champions. Prakash hardly made any name in the sport. Bogmolovs both are quite unknown. Quite interesting to hear about Agassi, I thought that he was of Russina descent.

The Dents are a tennis family. Lendl's mother was a pro wasn't she? a very good coach certainly. Same for Connors.

Also tennis popularity is much more recent than football or Cricket...and since then it has become very competitive so the chance of success within a family is rarer.

You may inherit the genes,you may not,you just never know
Look at the greatest sportsmen and question if their talent was purely by coincidence or if they inherited the genes from their parents
Looking at Federer and Serena,doesnt look like they got their talent from their parents
I think its harder if you come from a sporting family cause theres a lot of added pressure and expectation,big shoes to fill and no matter what you do,you will always be compared or as Laverfan said "live under the shadow"
Id hate being one of of Agassi and Graff's kids...you have to feel sorry for them if they decide to play tennis

Connors' son never made great in tennis, I think he was playing at some level but never broke into the mainstream.

Well Murray's mum is a coach too, innit?

Also, is Klizan's run is one of the best for an unseeded player in the recent times or Goffin did better than him.

I think the last unseeded player to reach finals was Baghdatis?

wow3 wrote:Quite interesting to hear about Agassi, I thought that he was of Russina descent.

Mike Agassi (Andre's father) was an Iranian boxer, IIRC.

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Agassi#1970.E2.80.931985:_Early_life

wow3 wrote:Connors' son never made great in tennis, I think he was playing at some level but never broke into the mainstream.

Well Murray's mum is a coach too, innit?

I was talking about Connors' mother.

Armenian and Assyrian descent- If I am not wrong then Armenia was part of Soviet Union until 1990.

Tenez wrote:

wow3 wrote:Connors' son never made great in tennis, I think he was playing at some level but never broke into the mainstream.

Well Murray's mum is a coach too, innit?

I was talking about Connors' mother.

I was not referring to your comment. I just said that in general.

wow3 wrote:Armenian and Assyrian descent- If I am not wrong then Armenia was part of Soviet Union until 1990.

I was going by his Olympic representation in Boxing for Iran.

Like we have discussed in the past that Wiki- not very reliable. I remember reading somewhere that Agassi had Russian roots and that was when Agassi was really young and just had started playing tennis.

He used to have long blonde hair then and my sister used to love him. Recently I told her that Agassi used to wear wig and she was just not ready to believe me