Biography

Born in Kent in the United Kingdom, Robert Dee, arrived in this world on January 18th 1987, during one of the coldest British winters in recent records.

At the age seven, while at school in Sidcup I picked up my first tennis racket and realized pretty quickly that it would be a sport I could grow to love.

Tennis would have to wait though and, while I played in minor junior tournaments in the ensuing years, the deal with my parents was that I would not to take it up seriously until I had some reasonable education under my belt.

So, at the age of 16, having just completed my school examinations and receiving creditable pass marks, I decided to give up school and chase my life’s dream of becoming a professional tennis player.

Having chosen not to start playing seriously until 16, I realized my professional tennis career would start later than most. I knew I would not be a 21 year old legend, but maybe by the age of 23 or 24 I could be knocking on the door of world class tournaments and moving up the world ranking lists.

Well, that proved a little naive!

First stop on my chosen career path was to move to Bradenton, Florida to work with the legendary Nick Bollettieri. World famous coach of Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova, Tommy Haas and many others. He has a reputation for improving metal and physical strength and I couldn’t wait to meet him.

The Bollettieri regime is intensive, very tough and austere. Training starts at 5 am, well before the sun rises, which meant rising from my bed at 4.15 in the morning. For a sixteen year old that in itself was a tough first lesson to learn.

Two hours of intensive morning training, followed by breakfast, physical fitness, footwork training, lunch, a further two to three hours in the afternoon, then a gym training session, dinner and sleep….and often the sleep came during dinner!

It was no holiday, not much time for socializing because at the end of the day the only thing you really wanted to do was sleep, but the experience was incredible. I brought with me commitment and determination and it Nick instilled in me a deep sense of self-respect and professionalism.

Almost two years after arriving at Bollettieri I was granted a wild card at a Mexican challenger. It wasn’t as hard a match as I would have expected from a main draw challenger but it was my first time on the world stage and I was playing a Mexican on home ground with hundreds of supporters cheering him on. The nerves kicked in pretty quickly!

My only support came from a lone voice up in the stands urging me on and applauding my winning shots. I didn’t know who he was at the time but I was really grateful he was there. I later found out that he was Alex Bogdanovic, a British player, ranked in the top 200 and I was grateful that he took time out to support a fellow Brit in his first world ranking match.

I was conscious that I had started late and that I needed to make up time. So, with the blessing of my coaches in Florida, I decided to leave to gain my experience on the world circuit by playing any many world ranking matches I could get into, anywhere I could and, in the process, hopefully see some of the world and gain valuable tournament experience.

Professional tennis at Futures qualifying level is many things but jet set and luxurious are not terms you could ever associate with it.

Traveling to countries like Iran, Senegal, Rwanda, Botswana, Venezuela, Kenya, and Sudan may sound daunting and certainly it was a real challenge both physically and mentally. But while the journeys were not always easy or comfortable, the experiences were unbelievable.

Certainly, there was great poverty, widespread illness and many dangers all around. There were hotels without windows, with rats running through the bedrooms at night and food that passed through the body quicker than Roddick’s first serve! But there were also real people, kind and genuine people struggling to survive.

Their suffering taught me a great deal about myself and how we see ourselves in the West generally. Their constant struggle, just to stay alive, left many lasting memories that I cherish to this very day. They also taught me to strive for what I believe in and to be determined throughout.

After a year of “on off” travel and with some great life changing experiences under my belt, I decided to base myself in Spain where I knew the competition would be amongst the toughest in the world and where tennis is widely regarded as a sport for all, not just the well off.

My parents had been regular visitors to La Manga and I had trained many times with Dani & Miguel Dios at the La Manga Club. I’d heard that Dani had left the club to start his own “Costa Este” (East Coast) academy and was working out of a small public tennis club in Los Alcacarez, just north of La Manga. So I went along for a training session and have been here ever since.

It is a little contradictory to live on one of Europe’s great tennis resorts with some of the most impressive facilities in the world, and yet train and play my tennis at the Costa Este Academy, which had very basic facilities some 20 minutes drive up the coast. However, it seemed somehow appropriate as I could not afford to train full time at the La Manga club and I have really enjoyed working with the Dios brothers enormously.

Since arriving in Spain two years ago, we have concentrated more on Spanish professional tournaments which are usually very strong. Many world ranked players play the RFET (Spanish Federation) matches because the prize money is good, the competition is strong and the standard is high. Even Rafael Nadal started on this circuit.

I never believed that by the time I was 21 I would have achieved great fame, I didn’t think I would be ready. But on 22 April 2008, my life changed forever. Having been previously unknown to almost everyone in the tennis world, I suddenly became famous overnight……….and that story you can read in another area!