For those of you who haven’t heard of Deja Kitchiner, she is a young girl from the USA who is being touted by her father as the next Justine Henin and Steffi Graf. She has a youtube account and her father has attempted to create hype around Deja by spamming tennis forums with videos of her and making outlandish claims about her future in the game. The problem is that in reality, she just isn’t very good. In the youtube videos of her being fed balls, she appears to be hitting her serve, backhand and volleys all in the same western forehand grip, and any beginner could tell you just how wrong that is.
It really highlights just how easily fathers can exploit their daughters. She probably is a nice, normal young lady but she has become the butt of jokes across the tennis community as her father continues to shamelessly promote her under the moniker of JustWinDeja among other usernames and fake profiles. Shouldn’t it be JustPlayDeja? He claims that she is thirteen years old but not only does she look far older, but she has seemingly been thirteen for years now. It’s just a sad situation and if (and when) she doesn’t become that world famous pro that her father is adamant she will be, how will she be able to have a normal life considering she will have spent her whole childhood playing tennis?
With all that said, the sob story is brilliant;Â “We played in a hallway and when there was no hallway we, um, hit on the back of our SUV”. Completely believable of course.
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Even though you might have never really seen Deja play tennis, just watching the videos of her may or may not convence you that she is good at what she does. Deja just turned 14 years old and I know this to be a fact. She also loves the game of tennis and love to practice, work out, enjoys her family and friends. She is smart and her father is helping her to reach her dream of one day becoming the best in the tennis field. I support her 100% all the way. Having seen her play in tournments with older girls, that she has beaten or held her own most of the time in the game of tennis, she is good. She is strong and really loves tennis and wants to be the best.
Susie is blatently her Dad.
No doubt. At least he was creative with the name for once.
yall are hard on the little one but i respect your oppion so if she is not the next williams sister
who is? ill throw some names and get back to me ok here we go, Sloan Stevans,Madison Keys, Vicky Duval, Britney Augustine, Myiesha Simmons,Mary Profit or Anne-liz Jeukeng-Nkamgouo, but before you answer do the research, ive seen most of them play they are good
and i think one of these girls will take the tourch
dude i saw another article on her ,pops said she serve’s 115+ and she 13 or 14 no way
The first two names are good players, and I have seen most of them play. However there is no “next Williams Sister”. No one (America or otherwise) is going to be able to match the level of play that the Williams sisters played at for a long, long time. Hell, I can’t even see many of them coming close to Henin/Clijsters/Sharapova for a long time.
yeah you right richard put them in the game and the right time when most girl where serving an volley now all girl bang but anne liz and myiesha, there the most athletic of these girl but as a black tennis player the next doesn’t have to win hella title’s just one and we will passed the tourch for the black community thats what we mean by the title nxt before them it was the nxt ziina before that the nxt atheia get my driftt there are not alot of top prospects these are our best bet for now i can promis it will be a ntx william before tiger or ash
The best of all is Anne-Liz Jeukeng!
I watched that girl at the Orange Bowl by accident.
She has a phenomenal one handed backhand.
She is the one to watch.
I am not one to put a child down, but this seriously sad! I am a African American coach living and working with WTA and ATP players in Finland. I came to Florida a few yrs back and offered Daja and her father the chance to come and train with my kids. Needless to say, a no show. I feel bad that these kids are almost brainwashed at times without even knowing it. Sloan Stevens, excellent player and young lady. To even mention her name with Deja is not fair. Dejas strokes need a lot of work. Her father needs to back off some and allow people who do this for a profession help. If he continues with all of this nonsense, then she will be put aside by many. Richard Williams formula worked for him and his kids. This is no guarantee that it will work for anyone else. There are many coaches who love this game and help kids because they want to see their dreams become a reality. I hope he gets his head out of the clouds and lets this young lady make some choices for herself.