by Mary Joe Fernandez & Jason Brown

“I started on Kendall Lakes, Fla. There were two public courts I played – at an elementary school in Kendall Lakes and another facility nearby – and that’s where my Dad used to take my sister every day after school. She was 10 years older than me. I was three, and she was 13.

She had back problems (Fernandez’s sister wore a brace to correct scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, similar to the story of American tennis star James Blake), and he’d go out there and feed her balls for about an hour, and I would tag along. My dad made a little racket for me by shaving the handle and had me go hit against the backboard to entertain myself while he hit with my sister. My dad played socially in Spain, so he knew how to play. Those are my memories of just going out there every day and loving it, and going home and hitting balls against the walls of my room… going in the kitchen and hitting against the refrigerator door, and basically, just driving my parents nuts.”

As she grew older, Fernandez received lessons from various area teaching pros and would often hit with kids older than her, invaluable learning experiences that made her a more complete player. It wasn’t too long until Fernandez caught the eye of a coach who offered her father free lessons to train his daughter, who was exhibiting exceptional hand-eye coordination.

“My dad thought he meant my sister,” laughed Fernandez, who lists Chris Evert and Bjorn Borg among her tennis idols growing up. Planning to take her husband and children back to Kendall Lakes one day in the future, Fernandez wants them to see where her tennis life began.

“My challenge every day back then was to keep getting one more ball back,” said Fernandez, who began playing tournaments at the age of six. “That made it fun for me, to get 50 balls or 60 balls back in a row.”

But for all of Fernandez’s early success – winning local tournaments, becoming a ranked player and eventually winning the prestigious Orange Bowl – it all came down to education, as far as her parents were concerned.

“They always pushed me to play tennis to a certain degree,” said Fernandez, “but their No. 1 goal was always school. Getting good grades at school was their No. 1 priority, and that never changed.”

At an early career crossroads, with budding stars like Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini turning pro, Fernandez had to make a decision: To turn pro or finish high school.

Following the mantra that her parents had laid out and drilled into her head, Fernandez stayed in school.

“I’m very fortunate looking back that I did that,” said Fernandez, crediting the wisdom of her parents. Fernandez would finish high school but turned pro in 1989, thus skipping college.

“I think it’s very individual,” said Fernandez about the decision to turn pro.

“You see so many players that develop later, and college is a great thing for their tennis career. But then you see other players that are ready to go. I think it’s very personal. I’m a fan of school. I think it’s so important to get a good education because it’s something to fall back on if your sport doesn’t work out; if you get injured. I’ve seen success both ways.”

Now a doting mother of two living in the Cleveland suburbs, Fernandez juggles her new career as a tennis broadcaster for ESPN, while filling in the rest of her time raising her children.

After retiring from tennis in 2000, the winner of seven career singles titles with memorable appearances starring on the U.S. Fed Cup and Olympic teams, Fernandez was certain that her playing days were over and that she would likely abandon tennis and find a new hobby.

Boy was she wrong.

“I tell this story a lot, but it’s true,” reminisced Fernandez. “When I retired, I thought I wasn’t going to play any more. I thought that I had played all my life since I was three years old and I’m going to pick up some other activity, some other way to stay in shape and get away from tennis for awhile. And I did, for about six months. I tried aerobics and other classes.

“But I missed it – I missed the tennis. And when I started to play again, because now I was out of shape, I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, what a great workout tennis is.’ When you do it for a living and it’s your life, you don’t think about it because you’re always pretty much in shape. But now, I realize how tennis works every part of your body, and in a short amount of time, you get a great workout. So it’s funny how I’ve come full circle. If I want to exercise, tennis is what I do.”

Now carrying the round-the-clock responsibilities of parenting while trying to keep in shape, Fernandez says she prefers the non-competitive workout of hitting and drills, unlike her playing days, when competing was the core of her existence.

If she gets a chance, Fernandez will play some doubles every once in awhile. Since her children aren’t enrolled in full-time school yet, Fernandez hopes to get in a more consistent playing routine once they’re older. In the meantime, she keeps her racket in the car and plays whenever the opportunity affords her.

“It’s funny, but now I get really sore after I play,” said Fernandez, taken aback by the fatigue after racking up a remarkable 1,125 combined singles (437-203) and doubles (344-141) matches over the course of her 14-year career.

“It’s a sport that gives you a lot of benefits that I obviously didn’t realize when I was doing it all the time. So now I realize truly what a great sport it is.”