Marat Safin

Safin was born in Moscow,USSR (now Russia), to an ethnic Tatar family. His parents were former tennis players and coaches. His younger sister is a professional tennis player Dinara Safina, and not the singer Alsou Safina, contrary to public belief, although she also has a brother named Marat. Safin's father managed the local Spartak Tennis Club where Safin trained in his youth alongside several up-and-coming tennis players, including Anna Kournikova, Elena Dementieva, and Anastasia Myskina. At age fourteen he moved to Valencia, Spain, to gain access to advanced tennis training programs which were not available in Russia. Safin gained the attention of the tennis establishment in 1998 with his consecutive victories over Andre Agassi and (defending champion) Gustavo Kueten at the French Open.

Martina Navratilova

Navratilova was born Martina Subertova in 1956. Her parents divorced when she was three, and in 1962 her mother Jana married Miroslav Navratil, who became her first tennis coach. Martina then took the name of her stepfather (adding the feminine suffix "ova"), thus becoming Martina Navratilova.
In 1972 at the age of 15, Navratilova won the Czech republic national tennis championship. In 1973, aged 16, she made her debut on the USLTA professional tour but did not turn professional until 1975. She won her first professional singles title in Orlando, Florida in 1974 at the age of 17.

Martina Hingis

Hingis was born to two accomplished tennis players: a Czech mother, Melanie Molitorova, and a Slovak father, Karol Hingis. Molitorová once ranked No. 10 among women in Czechoslovakia. Her father is a tennis trainer in Košice. They named their daughter 'Martina' (originally Martina Hingisova) after Martina Navratilova. Hingis' parents divorced when she was a young girl. She moved with her mother to Moravia for a short period, then to Switzerland. Hingis began hitting tennis balls when she was two years old and entered her first tournament at age four. In 1993, 12-year-old Hingis became the youngest player to win a Grand Slam junior title: the girls' singles at the French Open. In 1994, she retained her French Open junior title, won the girls' singles title at Wimbledon, and was ranked the World No. 1 junior player. She made her professional debut in October 1994, two weeks after her 14th birthday. In 1995, she became the youngest player to win a match at a Grand Slam tournament when she advanced to the second round of the Australian Open.

Maria Sharapova

Kim Clijsters

Justine Henin-Hardenne

Juan Carlos Ferrero