Hot-housing promising youngsters works—but not as well as you might think
NOVAK DJOKOVIC first picked up a tennis racket when he was four years old. At the age of 12 he left his native Serbia for a tennis academy in Germany. He won his first major title—the 2008 Australian Open—when he was 20. Today he has another 23 majors under his belt, and has spent more time ranked number one in the world than any other player.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Fanfare for the uncommon man”
From the January 17th 2026 edition
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