If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then the road to sporting heaven is paved with good luck. Everyone, but everyone, who is successful at the highest level must have many factors in their favour.
Talent counts, of course, but so do dedication, application, good health, timing - and a healthy dose of luck.
Not luck in the bounce-of-the-ball sense but luck in being at your best when the time is right. Luck in avoiding Pete Sampras in the first round when you're desperate for ranking points.
Luck in not being a middleweight when the heavyweights are taking over. And luck in avoiding the sort of injuries that ravage a career or kill it in its infancy.
One man who knows this equation better than most is Mark Kratzmann (pictured above with business partner and former Fed Cup player, Kristin Godridge). In 1984, Kratzmann, the Hong Kong-based former Australian Davis Cup player, simply owned junior tennis.
If you think that sounds excessive, consider that he won the junior titles at Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the US Open, and lost only in the final at the French - in the end finishing one match shy of the junior grand slam.
A victim twice that year was Boris Becker, not quite 'Boom Boom' yet, but a formidable opponent. When he held up the junior trophy at Wimbledon, and saw the names engraved on it, names like Bjorn Borg and Stefan Edberg and compatriot Pat Cash, all of whom went on to win the men singles on the Centre Court, Kratzmann could be forgiven for thinking tennis stardom was his for the taking.
