Chris Evert cites Serena Williams' father Richard as positive example of tennis parents today, laments not having that help in her generation

WTA legend Chris Evert recently discussed the challenges she faced while building her professional tennis career. She revealed that criticism took a heavy toll on her and highlighted the key difference between her journey and that of the legendary Williams sisters, Venus and Serena.

Chris Evert grew up in a Catholic household in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and developed a passion for tennis at the early age of 5. She honed her skills under the guidance of her father, Jimmy Evert, a former professional player and respected coach who won the men’s singles title at the 1947 Canadian Championships. By 1969, she climbed up to the top as the No. 1 ranked under-14 girls player in the United States.

When asked about the biggest challenge of being a legend, Chris Evert pointed to the differences in parental support between her generation and today's players.

"Very sensitive to criticism and judgment. Again, trying to navigate that from the age of 15 when I started to be successful worldwide. It's not an easy thing to be famous and successful when you haven't developed your personality or your character yet at 15, 16 years old. I think you see that in every business. Whether it's the movie business or athletes, it's very polarizing," she said, in a recent interview with We Are Tennis.

She used 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams's initial journey as an example to prove her point.

"That was challenging. I think that comes a little bit from also not feeling we didn't have, in our day, parents nowadays, because I remember always reading about Richard Williams and all of the tennis parents basically saying, always telling their kids how great they were, and you can be anything you want to be and just totally having positive reinforcement all the time. But again, in our culture, it wasn't that way. It was more like don't do this, don't do that, be a lady in public," the 70-year-old added.

Chris Evert talks about the heavy mental toll amid cancer battle

Chris Evert at The Championships - Wimbledon 2024 - Source: Getty

Chris Evert faced one of the most difficult times in her life back in 2022. The WTA legend was diagnosed with stage 1C ovarian cancer amid which she took a break from her commentator duties. Besides the physical toll, one of the most disturbing things was the prospect of death. She unveiled her state of mind during the battle in the aforementioned interview.

"I don't know. If somebody came to me and said I was going to die tomorrow, I don't know how I'd react, but I think I viewed it as something that was a challenge, and I viewed it also as being humble about it and thinking, well, why not me?” she said.

Tennis legend Chris Evert was declared cancer-free in January 2023. However, the troubles still didn't vanish as the illness returned and she underwent another round of treatment.