We believe there’s a superhero in each of us. True Superheroes celebrates people who’ve overcome adversity, made amazing contributions to society, and inspired others to do the same. Each week we nominate people in different fields. This week we focus on Tennis.
Frances Tiafoe
The extraordinary life of Frances Tiafoe seems straight out of a movie; as a child he slept in offices of the tennis center his immigrant father helped to build, and learned the game from observing the lessons of the elite fee-paying students, replicating their training drills as best he could while playing shots against brick walls with a borrowed racquet. Now he’s a global star, and an inspiration to the next generation of disadvantaged tennis fans hoping to follow in his footsteps.
When Andy Murray was just nine years old, he found himself at the center of the deadliest mass shooting in British history, carried out by a family acquaintance. Throughout his subsequent tennis career he’s been carrying two weights; the enormous expectations of British fans who had been starved of Wimbledon success for decades, and his own private battles coming to terms with the events of his childhood. He’s successfully overcome the first challenge, but can he overcome the second?
There’s no way to know how successful Monica Seles could have been; she won eight Grand Slam titles while still a teenager but her dominance was ended in the most horrific way imaginable when a spectator ran on court and stabbed her with a kitchen knife. Her remarkable recovery from this sickening assault is an inspirational tale, as is the story, revealed much later, of how she also battled with an eating disorder throughout her storied career.
