| Thursday, 26 June 2008 Written by Byron Vale First a disclaimer, the following players are not related: Benjamin Becker is no relation to Boris Becker. Yes he is from Germany and they share a last name and a first initial but that is it. Please do not ask again.
Having said that, Wimbledon 2008 is still turning out to be a real family affair. Among the relations taking part in this year's tournament are three sets of sisters, three sets of brothers, a brother and a sister, two sets of twins and a married couple.
Probably the most famous family in tennis are the Williams. Defending singles champion Venus and younger sister Serena are playing in the singles and teaming up in the doubles. They are both coached by their father Richard.
"I have the most respect for Serena as a player on tour," Venus said before the tournament. "Definitely I see her as a player who can produce any shot at any time from anywhere. So I would say that obviously it would be great to meet her in the finals, but we have to work at it."
The other famous siblings are Andy and Jamie Murray. Older brother Jamie defied the expectations of Britain and himself when he became the first Grand Slam winner in the family by taking the Mixed Doubles title here with Jelena Jankovic last year. Their mother Judy is a well known tennis coach.
"We were really competitive growing up," Andy said of his brother in a pre-Wimbledon interview. "We played golf, and Jamie was better than me at golf, and we played table tennis, and I was much better than him at table tennis.
"We played computer games, squash, football, we played so many different sports that naturally we were going to want to win and we would get into arguments about that."
The only brother and sister pairing at Wimbledon are Marat Safin and Dinara Safina. Marat is six years old than Dinara, and when he was asked yesterday why he wasn't present in Paris to watch his younger sister in her first Grand Slam final, he replied: "She didn't send me the charter. That's why I didn't come." Marat has also predicted that one day he will be referred to as "Dinara's older brother" rather than the other way around.
Thai twins Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana made their Grand Slam debut as a doubles pairing at the Australian Open this year. The brothers were hailed as heroes for helping several people escape a hotel fire just before the French Open. The other, more famous, twins here are the Americans Bob and Mike Bryan, the 2006 Wimbledon doubles champions and winners of four other Grand Slams. The only married couple competing this year will be Robert Seguso and his wife Carling Bassett-Seguso, who were married in 1987. Mr Seguso will be taking part in men’s senior doubles and his wife in the ladies’ senior doubles. The other family connections taking part at Wimbledon this year include brothers Christophe and Olivier Rochus, from Belgium, in the men's singles, Luke and Murphy Jensen in the men's invitational doubles, sisters Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko and Agnieszka and Urszula Radwanska in the ladies' singles. Wimbledon almost had a father and son competing this year. India’s Vijay Amritraj is playing in the men’s senior doubles while his son Prakash Amritraj lost in the second round of Wimbledon qualifying. Finally, like Benjamin and Boris Becker, the Chinese double pairing of Tiantian Sun and Shengnan Sun are not related.
|
Subscription Video (Live)
Subscription Video (VOD)
Free Video
