Julia Efremova, Raising a Champion #3 – Into Ksenia Efremova’s dreams
Behind every champion are dedicated parents. In the third episode of Raising a Champion, we focus on Julia Efremova, the mother of Ksenia, an 11-year-old prodigy considered one of the greatest young talents in tennis history.
Meet Ksenia Efremova, an 11-year-old Russian who believes it’s her destiny to play at Wimbledon and Roland-Garros – and win.
“I want to win all four Grand Slams,” she says. “And I want to be No 1 in the world at 16 years old.”
And meet her mother Julia – a former professional on the WTA Tour who gave up her career to have a family. She thinks her daughter could definitely be a champion – but needs to learn to deal with defeat.
“She could play against Roger Federer and she will try to win. When she was little, she won 17 tournaments in a row, and I thought, ‘What should I do?’ It can’t last forever when you’re winning everything. I have to make something to make her lose!”
Ksenia is already rising fast through the junior ranks. At 11, she’s mixing it with the world’s top 14 year olds. And so in Episode #3 of ‘Raising A Champion’, Ksenia gets the biggest test of her young career so far as she plays against adults for the first time.
There can be no doubt that Julia wants her daughter to make the most of her potential.
“Tennis, it’s a big stage, with actors. In this big theatre, I want Ksenia to be the greatest actress,” she says.
Follow her journey as she faces off against one of France’s former top prospects and one of the world’s best juniors. And see how mum Julia coaches her from the sidelines – and her reactions when Ksenia’s head starts to drop.
“I’m very happy these matches weren’t easy, because from these matches you learn a lot,” she tells her little girl.
Her coach Pierre Debrosse reminisces about his first impressions of his student, who learns very quickly:
“The first time I met her, she was like a little storm on court…something can take one or two months with a normal player, but with her it can take ten minutes.”
Patrick Mouratoglou: “You can only like the behaviour of Ksenia”
And Patrick Mouratoglou – who thinks Ksenia could follow in the footsteps of his Academy graduates Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexei Popyrin and Coco Gauff – assesses her attitude:
“You can only like the behaviour of Ksenia. She’s 11 years old…she fights back.”
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She’s amazing! And beautiful, I’m looking forward to seeing her develop into World #1 someday💪🏻🌸💖