By 16, I’d retired from one career. I retired on my 16th birthday – thanks to some PR person in London for coming up with the line “on a high note” – to concentrate on my O levels. So I was stuck in the BBC in Bangor in north Wales for what seemed like a week doing TV for America and all around the world explaining that my voice had broken. The scary thing was, I had no plans. Literally none.
I was back in north Wales concentrating solely on playing tennis and my girlfriend at the time. Tennis took over my life for a while. I played for about five hours every day around school. I played for north Wales in mixed doubles. But I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.
But I would tell my younger self he played it just right. I had to grow up very quickly because I found myself in an adult world.
