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| Thursday, July 11 Updated: July 12, 3:15 PM ET Shriver: My life's been blessed with good partners By Pam Shriver Special to ESPN.com |
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I got started with tennis when I was really young, 3 or 4. My parents gave me a tennis racket -- they were social players at the beginning of the tennis boom in the 1960s. Tennis was just becoming the "in" thing.
At first, I played against the backboard as much as anything. I was fortunate to belong to a tennis club with a lot of juniors. By the time I was 8 years old, I was playing with mostly boys, which is where I learned my temper. From there it was the typical stair-step up through juniors. Between ages 13 and 16, I did a lot of improving. My second year playing the 14-unders, I was No. 2 behind Tracy Austin. A year and a half later, I started to play pro events. My parents on every stage handled it really well. My mom says all the time how, when I was really young and looked like I was having the most fun hitting balls, she'd say "OK. It's time to go." The theory being that I'd always want to go back because it was still fun. When I became a pro, they had two other kids; my activities were a focal point, but my parents didn't let it drive the entire family's thinking. It's not like my parents had been through this before; they didn't have a textbook on how to do it. But they did a great job, and I've always had a great relationship with them and they let me do my thing. I communicate more with my parents at 40 than a lot of other people. Between January '78 and February '97, I considered myself a professional tennis player -- 19 years is a long time. The last couple of years before I stopped playing totally, I started doing more and more broadcast work. In '96, I interviewed for a United States Tennis Association board position, and have now spent six years on the board. I consider what I do in tennis now as having three areas:
On the personal side, this month is ridiculous. A month ago, George (Lazenby) and I got married, then a week ago I turned 40 (on July 4), and on Saturday I'm getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. In the future, we would like to have kids. George has raised three, but he's open to doing it all again. It's something I very much would like to do. But at age 40, it's in the hands of the good Lord. So, my main personal goal is to be a good wife and a mom. On the professional side, it's to be as good a broadcaster as I can be and to be a good citizen in the Baltimore community. Now that I'm married, I'm more and more appreciative of my free time. I've been married before -- I lost my husband three years ago -- but you have to be considered as a unit. That's a good thing, but it's something you have to be considerate of. It's a partnership. My speech at the induction is going to be about partnerships in life, an obvious topic with my success in doubles and just getting married. Partnerships are so important in one's life. I've been so blessed in that. And not just because Martina Navratilova and I won 20 doubles titles. It goes way beyond that. |
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