Tennis Secret Revealed - Bushman Trained Jim Courier and Pete Sampras!

Would you believe that two of the very best tennis players that ever came from the USA were once trained by an African born Portuguese bushman?

In these days of doom and gloom many of you may not believe in miracles or BIG dreams, I tell you, I do!...and so should you. Why?

You see I was born in a place called Vila Manica (in Mozambique near the border with Zimbabwe) and lived most of my youth in the Beira corridor. 

In simple words I was just a bushman who developed his tennis in between hunting and tracking wild animals, fishing in lakes and rivers infested by crocodiles, snakes and all sorts of poisonous insects.

In the end I became the N1 player of Portugal, beat some of the best players in the world, played all over the world and Coached Jim Courier who became the N1 in the world. I even helped Pete Sampras as well!

Of course I was not some sort of "Crocodile Dundee", I was just the average kid who lived between two worlds one of modern life and the other the bush.

First picked up my BB gun at eight years old and went to shoot a few birds around the neighborhood or anything that moved or had a tail, lizard, snake or whatever slithered around was shot!

Do not take me for a killer monster it was Africa in the 60ies. Later on going across the swamp to avoid several kilometers walk to go to the Hippodrome to ride horses was also par for the course.

Yes, I do not need to tell you what kind of creatures lurked in that murky place.

At around 12 years old getting up at 4 in the morning on Sunday to join a group of friends by bike to go fishing some 20 or 30 kilometers in any direction where we had been told there was a great place to fish tilapia or 'mussopo' (a sort of huge cat fish, that by the way we did not eat!) be it a river, a dam or just a plain lake, there we went!

For us it was no different to what life is even today to millions of African kids that either have to ride a bike, run or walk to distant schools from the jungle or to the jungle.  We were privileged kids we did it for the fun of it for the adventure.

Oh yes! Crocodiles and other unfriendly creatures like boas, mambas, spiting cobras,were around, that did not stop any of us (insane souls!) from wadding into those waters almost waist high for "that special spot"!

Of course on our way to those great fishing or hunting spots we could have easily fallen prey to other formidable predators like the big cats, a pride of lion, a solitary leopard, or some dog like creatures with huge fangs called hyena and even by a gang of marauding baboons!

After all we lived not too far from a huge game reserve the Gorongosa Park and wild animals, just like all of us, love to go for outings and a change of diet.

Well do you believe in Angels? We must have had an army of them! Nothing ever happened to us kids!

If my father, that died at 92, knew what I was doing then, he would not have lasted to be 40! And I would have gotten beaten to a pulp before he died with the heart attack!

Surely I learned plenty about hunting, tracking, survival and the bush and its inhabitants.

There was one thing though, I had that I enjoyed more then fishing and hunting trips with friends and some adult professional hunters, that was tennis!

Yes, tennis! I started playing "tennis" with wooden paddles (similar to the ones we see today at the beach) that my friend and Cook, John Onion, and myself had designed and built in my fathers hobby-shop.

After school I spent a good hour everyday with John just playing volleys to each other, I must say John was a great volleyer!

Here I must make a break on this story and tell you who was and what John Onion represented to me.

A friend, a great friend much older then me, of a different color then me, he was very black, but to me color was and is not an issue, John was someone that I will always remember as one of my best friends ever!

John taught me how to make a bow and arrow from scratch, showed me how to track and stalk an animal, how to make animal and bird sounds, create traps of all sorts and how to camouflage with nature. Tennis is about that too!

Showed me that "ufa" with dried fish tastes great and that termites taste delicious fried in oil (a bit like shrimp!) and a great source of protein.

He also told me about the lore of certain animals, like about the 'kizumba' (the hyena) and that when sleeping in the open you should always cover yourself fully with a blanket, especially your head! 'Because the 'kizumba' will come and eat your ears and nose!'

Oh, yeah, for many years even though inside my house, I covered my head before I carefully stretched my hand out to turn off the light in my bedroom.

You could never know!

Oh yes, that was my great friend John Onion!

Sergio - Pluto - Kuteguru

At about eight years old Santa was listening and a beautiful red and white Spalding tennis racket, Pancho Gonzales signature, was waiting for me under the Christmas tree. That was the beginning of the realization of a dream and a fantastic trip in the world of tennis.

Along the way I met an immense amount of very special people and mentioning some of their names to you is most dear to me:

Fernando Lage (MOZ), Brian Rooke (SA), Don Black (ZIM), Mrs. Smith (ZIM), Richard Howes (Aus), Aldo Schiebler (ITA) and Harry Hopman. These were people who inspired, nurtured and motivated me to be a champion.

If in your life you ever come across wonderful people like this, you will know how hard it is to say good-bye and in essence how never to say good-bye, just 'thank-you' instead.

Whatever Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Cedric Pioline, Tim Mayotte, David Wheaton, Brad Gilbert, Mark Knowles, David Nankin, Grant Stafford, Bonnie Gaduzek, Julie Halard, Mary Pierce and hundreds if not thousands of others think of Sergio Cruz is for them to judge. One thing is sure though, what I passed on to those players would never have been possible without the persons I mentioned previously, because without them, Sergio Cruz, the tennis player would never had existed.

Now, imagine that one of the most prestigious Tennis Academies in the world owned by no other then I.M.G. (International Management Group) the largest sports management agency in the world, trusted their most precious assets and clients Jim Courier and Pete Sampras in the hands of a "Bushman"!

The rest of my story could be a book but, I am not here to talk about myself, this is all about you, about your dreams and your future.

If I did what I did and achieved a certain level of excellence, now just imagine what many of you will be able to do, born in much more sophisticated societies and with possibilities that I never had or could ever dream of.

You can literally change the world!

And this goes without saying, 'Yes You Can!'

Take every opportunity with both hands and run all the way to the end zone with it!

Enjoy your tennis.

Sergio Cruz

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