Sports can be tough, isn’t it? A player has to put in all the grit and determination to succeed at the highest level. Moreover, success at the highest level also doesn’t guarantee that the life will go smooth. Ask the 60-year-old French tennis legend Catherine Tanvier who has had to deal with many difficulties despite being the No. 1 player in her country back during her playing days. She achieved many amazing feats for France, including her presence in the top 20 of the WTA rankings and defeating legends like Billie Jean King. However, her personal life was turbulent and she opened up recently about the difficulties she faced while being one of the best players that the country had produced.

Years ago, Tanvier published her memoir Declassee: De Roland-Garros au RMI, roughly translating to Withdrew: From the French Open to the Dole, in 2007. When she was a teenager and emerging on the tennis circuit, a turbulent phase in her personal life ensued as her father left her home. Subsequently, she was forced to become her family’s main breadwinner. Moreover, she even bailed her estranged father out of tax difficulties, leaving her with very little savings. In fact, taxmen eventually came knocking at her door and she revealed the harrowing outcome in her memoir.

Tanvier goes on to say, “I was winning the salary of an adult person in a week, but traveling is expensive, paying fees is so expensive. I was the very first professional living there. All the males were living in Switzerland or London, so no tax. Tax people didn’t know how to tax a professional tennis player.”

Further, she added, “Of course I didn’t have the money. They came to my place. They took everything, except that it wasn’t my furniture, it was my mom’s. They wanted to humiliate me.” Just in her 20s, Tanvier was left with nothing. This episode left a deep impact on Tanvier and her playing career which she described in her memoir.

Meanwhile, Catherine Tanvier isn’t the only tennis star who faced difficulties because of her success. Even British star Sonay Kartal faced a major problem after achieving her best result at Indian Wells this year.

Sonay Kartal was left without a home at Indian Wells

Local tennis player, Sonay Kartal, was the breakthrough star at this year’s Wimbledon Championships. She reached the pre-quarterfinals there before losing against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. However, months earlier, she also made it to the same stage in Indian Wells where she lost in the round of 16 against Aryna Sabalenka. While she entered the tournament as a qualifier, Kartal hadn’t expected to dig deep and as a result, the lease of her home expired midway through the tournament.

Explaining that incident, Kartal said, “I booked an apartment to see me through qualifying so I had to find somewhere else to stay last minute. I was homeless for about 12 hours. But it was a good problem to have.”

Eventually, she had her lease renewed just in time. While success on the court is difficult to find, such uncalled problems can arrive at any point of time even though a player gets feet going on the court.