{"id":45229,"date":"2026-07-31T21:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/45229\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T21:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:10:17","slug":"tatiana-nas-rise-as-one-of-the-worlds-top-young-tennis-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/45229\/","title":{"rendered":"Tatiana Na\u2019s rise as one of the world\u2019s top young tennis players"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many 12-year-olds, Tatiana Na loves her family, friends, PE and tech classes at school, drawing, cartoons and playing with the spoodle puppies bred by her parents. But on the tennis<\/a> court, the shy Christchurch tween transforms into a determined young power player.<\/p>\n

Her head coach Sebastian Lavie says she\u2019s among the top five girls in the world for her age and \u201calmost like a professional athlete in the sense of being super-driven and knowing what she wants\u201d.<\/p>\n

Famed French coach Patrick Mouratoglou<\/a>, who has mentored legends like Serena Williams<\/a>, enthuses, \u201cI don\u2019t remember seeing a player that young hitting the ball that well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, dad Neville says that no matter how nervous Tatiana might be before games, \u201cput her on court and she becomes a different person. She was born with a spirit to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Tatiana isn\u2019t your average Kiwi kid. While watching TV, she diligently massages her muscles with a foam roller, then tracks her sleep at night to make sure she\u2019s getting enough rest. Add 10 to 12 hours of on-court training each week, five to eight hours of cardio, and upcoming games in Australia, Germany, Austria and the US, and it\u2019s clear she\u2019s an elite athlete in the making.<\/p>\n

\"\"Parents Lili and Neville are her biggest fans. (Credit: Selina Nunn)<\/p>\n

A rising star on the court<\/p>\n

Although neither Neville nor Tatiana\u2019s mum Lili are tennis players, they introduced her and her brother Alvin, 16, to the game when they were four and five, respectively. Revealing a natural talent, both have progressed to become champions, topping their age groups and representing Aotearoa internationally.<\/p>\n

In April, Tatiana \u2013 accompanied by her dad and Sebastian \u2013 jetted off to compete in her first full European tour. In Athens, she won five of her six matches, followed by a standout performance in the Greek city of Marathon, where she reached the final in an under-15 event. Finishing her trip in France, she defeated Europe\u2019s number-one player to become the 2026 Tennis Europe 12-and-under champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy strengths are being aggressive by hitting it hard and hitting clean winners,\u201d says Tatiana, who gets up at 5.30am for training before school twice a week. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I play better, I get more motivated \u2013 then if I play worse, I\u2019ll be like, \u2018Oh, my God!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"With coach Sebastian.<\/p>\n

Chasing a Grand Slam dream<\/p>\n

With her goal to compete in a Junior Grand Slam by 15, transition to the pro circuit at 16 or 17, then ultimately win Wimbledon, her coach Sebastian says what puts this within reach is Tatiana\u2019s \u201cincredible timing on the ball thanks to her background in rhythmic gymnastics\u201d.<\/p>\n

He explains, \u201cThat sport gave her a rare ability to stay balanced and produce huge shots while on the run or out of position. What also stands out is how fearless she is.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has the ability to rise to any challenge, regardless of who\u2019s on the other side of the net. She believes she belongs there, and that type of confidence and competitiveness is something you only see
in champions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Sebastian and his team at Lavie Tennis Academy<\/a> in Auckland, plus Patrick, Tatiana is supported by coaches at Tennis Canterbury<\/a>, Hagley Park Tennis Club<\/a> and Meredith Brothers Tennis Academy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The biggest challenge for the young star is making sure there\u2019s enough financial support to keep her playing at the top level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to sacrifice a lot of things,\u201d admits Neville, adding that\u2019s why they started breeding spoodles. <\/p>\n

\u201cLili loves dogs and we realised we can also raise a little bit of money for the kids. If we sell one puppy, the kids can do one tournament in New Zealand. If I sell two puppies, we can afford to send the kids to an overseas tournament!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"In action in Athens.<\/p>\n

The team behind the champion<\/p>\n

Along with the funds her family raises, Tatiana receives financial support through Patrick\u2019s exclusive Mouratoglou Academy \u2013 one of only 10 players in the world to do so. She\u2019s also been offered representation with global sports managers IMG.<\/p>\n

Sebastian explains this is extremely important because \u201cwe\u2019re constantly looking for supporters\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of course, with two tennis aces in the family, comparisons with the Williams sisters are inevitable, but Sebastian insists there isn\u2019t the same extreme pressure Venus and Serena faced.<\/p>\n

Sebastian says, \u201cLili and Neville are very hands-on when it comes to supporting their kids, and have done a really good job of keeping Tatiana a joyful young girl, but they trust the coaches
to do the coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when it comes to seeing his daughter play, Neville says her family\u2019s presence courtside never fazes Tatiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of kids, including Alvin, don\u2019t like their parents watching, probably because it\u2019s too much pressure, but Tatiana is different. Once she\u2019s on the court, she\u2019s 100% focusing on the game. She says she doesn\u2019t really care what I\u2019m doing. \u201cNormally, I sit there really quiet. I\u2019m still quite nervous when I\u2019m watching her play, but I enjoy it because her playing style is so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, asked what the kids at school think of her winning 16 out of her 18 games in her European tour, Tatiana shrugs and smiles, \u201cThey were just like, \u2018Good job!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like many 12-year-olds, Tatiana Na loves her family, friends, PE and tech classes at school, drawing, cartoons and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6012,16850,309,122,16851,28,2342,285],"class_list":["post-45229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wimbledon","tag-athlete","tag-lavie-tennis-academy","tag-patrick-mouratoglou","tag-serena-williams","tag-tatiana-na","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-player","tag-wimbledon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}