Luck plays a big part in finding a world champion: Navratilova

SINGAPORE — A large pool of talented young players willing to work hard, and an equally large dose of luck. Those are the raw materials needed to find and groom a potential world champion, said tennis great Martina Navratilova. And even then, the 59-time Major winner believes the odds of finding one are still slim.

“You need a lot of luck because you can do everything right, you can have the ability, the opportunity and the coaches, and still the body can break down,” said Navratilova yesterday at a breakfast panel comprising Singapore’s sporting legends swimmer Pat Chan, bowling world champion Adelene Wee and 40-time SEA Games gold medallist Joscelin Yeo.

“You can get 1,000 great kids who all want to work hard and have the bodies and one will be No 1, and 999 will not. The odds of that happening are just so small no matter what you do you may never have a champion or you might even have two at the same time,” she said.

Navratilova pointed out that even a country with little or no tennis history — Belgium as a perfect example — can succeed.

“Look at Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. Belgium had no tennis history and nobody has come since, but those two were playing at exactly the same time, grew up in the juniors together. So it’s just luck, great opportunity, great coaching, so many things have to come together.”

The 57-year-old confesses she would like to jump in on the recent trend of former greats taking up coaching role, what with Ivan Lendl, then Amelie Mauresmo, coaching Andy Murray, Boris Becker with Novak Djokovic and Stefan Edberg with Roger Federer.

“But not because everyone’s doing it, but because I’ve always wanted to do it,” she said, relishing the prospect of coaching one-on-one.

“I think that’s special. If the situation happens, I’d definitely love to do that, but it hasn’t cropped up yet. And the funny thing is, I’d probably make more coaching than playing tennis 20 years ago!

“My dream would be to coach a 16- to 18-year-old with potential to become No 1, but also a player who wants to run to pick up the balls, rather than the kid plodding along and stalling because he doesn’t even want to be here.”

As for the Women’s Tennis Association Finals that will be held here at the Sports Hub in October, where she will play in the Legends exhibition, Navratilova believes having the event in Singapore can only benefit the local tennis scene.

“I saw Rod Laver playing when I was nine … I wanted to play tennis just like him and it solidified the dream for me,” she said.

“That may be the case here when kids come to watch these women play. Ten years later you might get a champion here. Who knows? Maybe in 2025, we’ll be talking about a player from Singapore whose seed was planted at this tournament. You never know.” JEAN IAU