Jan Silva : Little Ace

Bruce Emond ,  The Jakarta Post - WEEKENDER   |  Wed, 02/25/2009 12:10 PM  |  Profile

Jan Silva was smacking imaginary tennis balls when most of his peers were still in diapers. YouTube videos and media coverage of the blond boy with a big backhand have made him famous in tennis circles, and a figure of controversy to some. His father speaks to Bruce Emond about what he wants for his talented progeny, the stereotype of the pushy tennis parent and the difference Jan can make in the game.

Jan Silva was itching to get onto a tennis court when he was still in the womb: His mother, Mari, a former top Finnish player who became a coach, went into labor while giving a lesson.

Everything and everyone, from the junior players who babysat him to the tennis club manager who gently tossed him balls, seemed to be directing him to the game. While other kids got cuddly toys and fairy tales read to them at bedtime, Jan watched a tape of American player James Blake until he fell asleep.

“As he got older he would pretend he was James, playing out the points against our sliding glass door,” the boy’s father, Scott Silva, says from France. “It was pretty crazy to watch this two-year-old running across our living room floor, playing points and toweling off during changeovers.”

If an athletic pedigree is half the equation in becoming a champion, with discipline and talent making up the rest, Silva, now 7, and his older brother Kadyn, 12, are already halfway to lifting the trophy. His African-American father, the son of a college track-and-field champion who worked several jobs to support his family, was a basketball player who grew up in Sacramento, California.

Scott Silva’s financially strapped childhood obviously influences how he is planning his sons’ tennis development and making the most of the opportunities afforded them. Despite inroads in the game made by the Williams sisters and their famous story of coming up from the streets to reach the top, Silva says the game in the United States is still for the affluent.

“Kadyn, due to our financial status, was able to play very few local matches, maybe 12 to the 70 the other kids in his age group were playing,” he says of when they lived in California. “I did not want Jan to have all this talent and for him not to have the opportunity to play because all his dad could do was afford to feed him and keep a roof over his head …”

So, in 2006, he sent a video to IMG, the leading sports and entertainment management company, of Jan playing. The family was invited to Indian Wells during the annual tennis tournament; Silva says they barely had enough money to pay for gas to the event. But they made it there and were spotted playing on court by player Marcos Baghdatis. He was impressed and advised them to visit the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France, where the Cypriot player had moved in his early teens to play.

“He said the academy in France will pay for everything. We were shocked and in disbelief, but they did fly us there and once Jan was on the court with Patrick Mouratoglou, he impressed Patrick with his game and his drive. Patrick asked me what I wanted for him and I said I want him to be the best the world has ever seen. Patrick then offered my wife and me jobs and said he would like to be a part of our project.”

Jan receives free training (the academy will receive a portion of his earnings if he plays professionally one day), overseen by his mother; Kadyn also trains at the academy (there is a sister, Jasmin, 4).

It’s a dream come true, Silva says. “The best players in the world are coming out of France. We love the system here – the US could learn a lot from the French Tennis Federation.”

The children go to French public schools and practice in the afternoon. Silva says it is “living healthy … we have the ideal environment to raise three wonderful children”.

In tennis, however, there is a notorious rogue’s gallery of overzealous tennis parents (Jaeger, Capriati, Pierce, to name just a few), which fuels skepticism when another prodigy emerges. When first contacted a year ago about an interview, Silva was wary and defensive, understandably so perhaps, when the assumption may be that he is another money-hungry parent pushing his son to win at all costs, living off the little one’s potential.

There have been disdainful comments about his son’s potential written on blogs (he believes another tennis parent was responsible), and nasty messages have hijacked one of the YouTube videos of Jan, already watched almost 115,000 times.

But Silva says when people meet Jan, the assumptions fall away.

“You spend the day with Jan and you see he is just not like your average everyday kid. Every single person who has spent a minute around him walks away with the feeling of something special just happened in their lives. He is a really good kid ... never gets in trouble and in seven years I have never been cross with him.”

He adds, however, that he has had to play “bad cop” once, when Jan, then 6, threw a tantrum after losing a match to a 9-year-old. He made his son apologize to the tournament director and withdrew him from the tournament.

“I sit next to the court for my sons’ matches and I read books, I give encouragement when I feel like they need it and I make sure they respect their opponents, coaches and all people that they come into contact with along this long and crazy path,” he says.

“...We love them and our love is not tied to wins and losses. We want them to be healthy, happy and respectful people. I am more proud of my sons when they lose yet fight and play hard than if they win and behave badly.”

Videos of Jan show a sweet-faced, athletic young boy who bounds around the court. His most impressive shot is his one-handed backhand, a rarity today but even more so among young children, most of whom naturally use two hands because of their lack of strength and coordination.

More impressive still is his dedication; he goes through the repetitive drills with a smile on his face, always ready for more.

“Kids are either blessed with amazing talent or they work really hard to become good,” Silva believes. “Most times the players who are talented won’t work as things come so easy and when they are pushed to work hard they fold or make reasons why they cannot work as hard as someone that is not as gifted. They said Jan is the talented kid who pushes himself harder when things get difficult.”

In one TV interview, Jan is asked what he wants to be when he grows up. Surprisingly, he answers, “Scientist”.

What would Silva do, then, if one day his son decides that he wants to hang up his racket and head to the lab? Would the investment in time, money and hard work have been for naught?

He answers that it wouldn’t matter because “I love him and care more about him as a person … I don’t have any doubt that he will make me proud with whatever he chooses to do, as he has never given me reason to doubt that he will be anything short of a great human being.”

Still, his father’s pride comes through in his final comment about what little Jan Silva could achieve one day.

“I think he will change the sport of tennis and win at all levels of the sport.”

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