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Jan Kristian Silva was born the son of Finnish National
Tennis Champion Mari Maattanen
and college basketball standout Scott Silva,
on November 17, 2001 in Sacramento, California, USA. Jan actually
started playing the game to which has become so devoted, before
he was born! Jan’s mother Mari, an extremely popular teaching
professional, continued teaching tennis at her home club of Gold
River, California well into her ninth month of pregnancy, and had
just finished with a tennis lesson when she was rushed to a local
hospital to give birth to Jan!
Jan’s fascination with tennis was seemingly triggered while
watching World Team Tennis matches as a baby, where his mother Mari
substituted as a World Team Tennis Sacramento Capital, along with
may other touring pros such as Mark Knowles,
Andre Agassi, Anna
Kournikova and Elena Lihkotseva,
who all had Jan on their knee at one time or another!
Much too young to be a ball boy for the Sacramento
Capitals, Jan began hitting foam balls and tennis balls with
his parents at the early age of one (1) year.
Jan’s baby sitter and manager of the Gold River, California
indoor courts, Chelle Walsch,
would feed balls to Jan every day as well as show him a tennis calendar
depicting the world’s top ATP professionals. By age two (2)
Jan had identified with rising American star James
Blake, insisting on repeatedly watching a taped tennis
match between James Blake and Paradorn
Srichipan during the final of an ATP event in Comack,
New York. Jan started to emulate the ground strokes of James Blake,
including his one-handed backhand! The tiny sensation began to astound
not just casual tennis players, but teaching professionals and touring
professionals alike!
Jan’s tennis prowess continued to grow in leaps and bounds,
and by age three (3) had developed consistent strokes while hitting
with virtually all top teaching professionals at Gold River, California,
including head professional Marty Rothfels
as well as Doug Atkinson, head
professional at Broadstone Tennis facility in Folsom, California.
Jan would play imaginary matches against the sliding glass door
in his parents living room, even toweling off between points! By
watching the taped tennis match showing James Blake, over and over,
Jan visualized each and every stoke and continued to hone his big
tennis game, housed within his pint-sized body. Local news picked
up the story of the “Tiger Woods
of Tennis” while covering an October 2004 ATP
Challenger event in Sacramento, California. Jan would, incredibly,
be seen hitting daily with the likes of former top 30, 40 and 50
touring professionals Harel Levey,
Flavio Saretta and Andre
Sa!
A video tape of Jan with his hitting coach Amine
Khaldi was sent to various sports management firms,
in order to give them a “heads up” on the latest
sports prodigy. IMG’s staff commented
that of the hundreds of video tape that they review throughout the
year, they “have never seen anything like this”,
referring of course to Jan’s clean shot making at the ripe
old age of four (4) years! Jan was invited to hit with Nick
Bollietteri at his tennis camp in Bradenton, Florida,
as well as be a guest at the Pacific
Life ATP event in Indian Wells, California. There in Indian
Wells in March of 2006, Jan was seen hitting by Tennis legend Jimmy
Connors, who was impressed sufficiently enough to ask
Jan’s parents for permission to include Jan in a Jimmy Connors
instructional tennis video!
Jan Silva also made a distinct impression on Australian Open Finalist
Marcos Baghdatis and his coach
Guillaume Peyre, who were hitting
adjacent to Jan and his father Scott Silva in between matches. Jan
amazed Marcos with his ability to emulate his two handed backhand,
then switch to his standby one-handed backhand as matter of factly
as shaking hands, truly remarkable for age four(4) or fourteen(14)
for that matter! Jan was quickly invited to Paris, France to be
a guest with his family at one of the finest junior tennis facilities
in the world, the Mouratoglou
Academy, where he currently resides and trains, with his entire
family! Jan is by far the youngest player enrolled at this elite
training facility, which enrolls only a very few of the world’s
top junior players, who all train there full time. Marcos Baghdatis
is the premier player from this academy, who still trains there
and interacts with Jan daily!
Jan has appeared on such shows as the Ellen
Degeneres Show and ABC’s Good
Morning America, as well as other major media in both
France and the United States. Jan’s tennis prowess is a much
talked about subject in the tennis pages of French Tennis Magazine
as well as VSD Magazine, the
French version of People Magazine. Remember, Jan Silva is only Five
(5) years old at present, and stay tuned for his tournament results
against much older competition!
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Harel Levy,
Andre Sa, and Flavio Saretta at the Sutter Lawn Challenger with
then 3 year old Jan Silva
Guillaume,
Jan and Marcos
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