(CNN)Ksenia Efremova was not even three years old, and her mother already felt that her daughter was destined to become a star.
One afternoon, while her older brother was training on the tennis court, Efremova – as she often did – took one of his racquets and started hitting a basket full of balls.
“She started throwing balls,” Julia Efremova, a former professional tennis player, told CNN.
“I watched it and was amazed because all the balls flew over the net and she made the moves perfectly. I told myself that it was time to work with her because she was so passionate and wanted it.
“It really wasn’t my choice. She started her career that way.”
Widely regarded as one of the brightest young talents in tennis, Efremova, now 12, has already become something of a star, amassing more than 35,000 followers on Instagram and securing sponsorship deals with Nike and Yonex.
She currently trains at the prestigious Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France, founded in 1996 by Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ current coach.
The academy hosts selection weeks throughout the year, bringing potential young stars from around the world to showcase their talents and try to earn a spot.
“They come to be tested on the physical, the tennis of course and the mental side,” explains Mouratoglou. “We see them train. We also see them compete and then we decide whether we want to help them or not.
“We can’t help everyone but we do our best to help those who we believe have the best potential and our role is of course to find a way to help them develop their potential and to be the best they can be in the future to do that.”
“An incredible athlete”
Each player accepted into the academy gains access to a coach, fitness trainer and medical team, providing them with a world-class support system from the age of nine.
They also get detailed tournament and competitive debriefs, with Mouratoglou saying “the stress of competition” is the best way to see which aspects of their game most need to be developed.
Players like Coco Gauff and Stefanos Tsitsipas are among the current rising stars having spent a significant part of their formative years at the prestigious academy.
Efremova was nine when she arrived at the academy from Russia with her mother, who also acts as her coach, and Mouratoglou says he immediately saw her potential was “huge”.
“Ksenia has incredible potential, I think she has the whole package,” he says. “She is an incredible athlete. I mean if you look at their social media you will see them. She can do the full splits, she can dance, she can do all sorts of things except tennis.
“She moves extremely well. She’ll probably grow up because her mother is very tall. Her shots are amazing. Her technique is extremely clean. She can take the ball early. She’s aggressive. She’s a very good competitor. So when you look at the whole package it’s great.”
Julia believes that her multi-sport daughter played a big part in making her such a versatile athlete at such a young age.
Not only has it taught her a range of transferable physical skills – like endurance and flexibility – that have improved her as a tennis player, but Julia says it’s also been crucial in ensuring Efremova doesn’t get bored of playing too much tennis too soon.
In fact, Julia says her daughter’s main sport was gymnastics, she often trained three hours a day compared to just one hour of tennis.
“I want to help parents around the world who dream of making their kids a professional tennis player because when they are little and at that age and they have that fire in their eyes you can’t kill hours of work on the tennis court” , she explains.
“For example, Ksenia played [tennis] when she was little only three times a week and i didn’t force her. I forced her in other ways, so she had dance, swimming, English and breakdance lessons. She was everywhere.”
“I want to be a legend”
Few children will experience the kind of pressure and expectation Efremova has struggled with for years, but Mouratoglou says her situation is comparable to Gauff’s as she rose through the ranks.
Failure is an important part of learning how to deal with that pressure, explains Mouratoglou, “because failure is understanding.”
At the academy, he says, kids are taught how to put into words the pressure and nervousness they feel before a game in which they’ve negatively impacted them.
“I mean, failure isn’t a good thing,” he says. “Of course it’s our job to make them succeed, but we know that on the road to success there will – and must – be some failures. What is important is that these failures are always used in some way to learn and get better.
“So if they fail under pressure, they need to know exactly how they felt before the game. They have to recognize that they had extra pressure that day that they couldn’t handle and it has to be constant feedback.
“They’ll know that the next time they feel that extra pressure, they have to explain. They have to say to the coach, ‘I’m not feeling well today. I’m feeling that pressure today. I’m nervous.’ First, they have to see it. Second, you have to express it, and when they do, we can help them work on it.”
Of course, some children will handle the pressure and nervousness better than others. Mouratoglou says Efremova is still learning but has already shown notable improvements during her time at the academy.
While much of the pressure comes from the expectations of “everyone across the tennis industry”, Mouratoglou explains that the incredibly high standards Efremova sets for herself mean she puts more pressure on herself than anyone.
“She always expects to win,” he says. “They have no choice but to win trophies.”
Julia Efremova says she sees this determination in her daughter every day during training and believes “with all my heart” that one day she will be “the best” tennis player in the world.
“I know her personality. i know who she is I know how hard she works. I know, how [badly] she wants it I know how she feels,” she says.
“First of all, she believes in herself. She has no doubt in her head. She has no doubt in her heart that she wants it. So I know from the bottom of my heart that she will be the best.
“Sometimes when I get angry at practice and I didn’t like something, I ask her, ‘What do you want from tennis?’ And she tells me, ‘I want to be a legend.’ It’s not just for them [enough] to be number one in the world.”
overcome tragedy
There is perhaps no greater testament to Efremova’s remarkable composure than her recent tournament win, the Tennis Europe Junior in Sweden.
Her father, former amateur player Alexey Efremov, had been battling lymphoma for more than two years. During the tournament, Efremova’s mother received news that her husband would soon lose this fight.
Julia says she had to make the difficult decision of whether to tell Efremova during the tournament or wait until it’s over.
“It was very tough, but Ksenia was in the tournament and I had to tell her,” she says. “Of course she cried. She was shocked. She asked me, ‘Maybe you can wake him up.’
“I said: ‘No, Ksenia. It’s impossible, he’s already in heaven.’ I asked her if maybe she wanted to stop, maybe we stop the tournament and she comes back.
“She said, ‘No, I’m going to play this tournament to the end.’
The final took place on Friday December 3, just six days after Alexey’s death. Efremova won the final and dedicated the title to her father.
“In memory of my father who passed away during this tournament in Sweden,” Efremova wrote on her Instagram account, which her mother runs. “1st place. You will always live in my heart as the strongest person in the universe. I will do whatever it takes to make your dreams come true and I know you will see it from above.”
Julia says Efremova’s decision to continue the tournament didn’t come as a surprise and explains that that kind of resilience is something she inherited from her father. She knows it was a decision Alexey would have agreed with.
“Her father, he loved her so much,” says Julia. “She has his spirit. He’s a strong, very strong person and she has that spirit of him.”
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