Yanina Wickmayer, 9, sat her father, Marc, down a few days after her mother died after a two-year fight with illness and told him they were going from Belgium to Tampa, Fla.
Wickmayer decided they needed to get away from their pain, and she decided to enroll at Saddlebrook Academy to pursue her dream of being a tennis player.
She had already categorized the pieces of furniture she intended to bring with them.
Daniella Dannevoye cause of death: What happend to Yanina Wickmayer mother?
Her father sold his swimming pool building company a week later, and the two were on a plane to Florida, neither of them knowing much English.
Wickmayer came on Arthur Ashe Stadium Court 10 years later and stormed her way into her first Grand Slam semifinals with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Kateryna Bondarenko on Wednesday.
Wickmayer’s near-invisibility in this event was just the latest wonderful surprise to come from the field of ladies.
