Parenting & Family Quote by Jana Novotna

Novotna’s line lands like a sigh from inside the locker room: not a grand lament, just a plainspoken observation that quietly indicts the era around it. “Seems like” is doing a lot of work here. It’s a hedge, a way to sound diplomatic while pointing at a shift she can’t quite stop. Coming from an athlete whose own career was built on a sport that asks for solitude, patience, and moneyed infrastructure, the understatement reads as both resignation and warning.

The phrase “kids today” isn’t just generational shorthand; it’s a marker of pipeline anxiety. Tennis survives on replenishment: junior programs, local clubs, parents willing to bankroll coaching and travel before a child can even explain why topspin matters. When Novotna says kids are “into other sports,” she’s gesturing at competition from games that feel more accessible, more social, more culturally visible. Team sports offer instant community and a clearer fantasy of belonging. Tennis offers a court, a bag of equipment, and the uncomfortable truth that most talent gets priced out early.

There’s subtext, too, about attention and narrative. Tennis is a slow-burn craft. It rewards repetition, not constant novelty. In an entertainment ecosystem that increasingly prizes highlights, personalities, and rapid feedback loops, Novotna’s comment reads like a recognition that the sport’s values don’t automatically translate.

It’s also a small act of stewardship: a former champion looking past trophies to the next cohort, measuring the health of the game by who’s choosing it, and noticing the room is thinning.