Father sees tennis as way for sons to succeed in life

The ball zips off the strings angrily. With every swing of his racket, Nicholas Mahlangu appears to be taking out his frustration on the ball.

Mahlangu insists he's not angry. Why should he be? He's an honors student at Green Valley High School. He has been accepted at Harvard, where he will continue his tennis career.

But something isn't right. Mahlangu appears stressed, not so much from tennis, but from an inner drive to succeed -- particularly in the classroom where he competes with some of the valley's most brilliant students.

"Just because I got into a good college doesn't change anything," the 18-year-old senior said. "I still have to keep up my grades."

And his game. Mahlangu doesn't play for Green Valley. Neither does younger brother Yannik, who is 16 and one of the top players in his age group. If the Mahlangu brothers did play for the Gators, there likely would be a couple more Class 4A state championship banners hanging in the school's gym. The Gators won five straight state boys tennis titles from 1995 to 1999 but haven't won one since.

Mahlangu doesn't want to dis­respect his high school's program, but he doesn't get enough competition to make him a better player. Instead, the Mahlangu brothers compete on the U.S. Tennis Association's Junior Circuit, where Nicholas is ranked No. 51 nationally in Boys 18s and Yannik is No. 55 in the Boys 16s.

"It's pretty good tennis," he said. "There's a lot of future pros and college players out there that I'm competing against."

Nicholas got more exposure from playing at the higher level, and he had virtually every Ivy League school pursuing him. He played Alistair Felton, Harvard's team captain, last summer while Felton was visiting Las Vegas and Mahlangu beat him, 7-6, 6-1. He and Felton became friends and when Mahlangu took a visit to Harvard in the fall, he was hooked.

"I fell in love with the place the first time I stepped onto the campus," Mahlangu said of the iconic Cambridge, Mass., institution, where he plans to study computer science. "I knew this is where I wanted to be."

His father couldn't be happier.

For me, it's an emotional experience," Richman Mahlangu said. "This was the goal all along -- for my sons to go to a really good college through their tennis."

Richman Mahlangu had come from poverty in South Africa during that country's apartheid era to eventually make his way to America and land a tennis scholarship to UNLV in 1986. He played two years for the Rebels, then went to Europe to teach the game. When his sons were born while living and working in Austria, he was determined that one day they would reap the benefits of a quality American education and tennis would be the vehicle to accomplish that.

But it wasn't easy.

It still isn't.

Mahlangu could be characterized as a prototypical pushy tennis parent, the kind who is never satisfied no matter how well his child performs. He was so hard on his sons -- Nicholas in particular -- that Nicholas seriously thought about quitting.

"There were times I hated going to practice," he said. "I thought it was supposed to be a fun thing. But my father saw it more as an investment in my future, and he wanted me to be the best player I could be."

Ryan Jarrell, who has served as the Mahlangu brothers' strength and conditioning coach the past five years, was an eyewitness to the daily battles between the boys and their father.

"There have been some tough times where they both wanted to walk away," Jarrell said. "I've asked Nicholas a hundred times, 'Do you love tennis?' And for a long time, he never said he did.

"But they know they have a gift. They're very competitive, very determined."

To give his life a semblance of balance, Nicholas took up playing the violin at age 11. His mother Eliane teaches music privately and, with her encouragement, he became proficient as a violinist. He played in the Green Valley school orchestra for two years but has since put music aside to focus on his studies and tennis.

"Once in a while I'll play it," he said of the violin. "It was something to help take my mind off tennis."

Meanwhile, younger brother Yannik took up piano. But like Nicholas, music has taken a back seat to school and tennis.

They are hitting partners and they push each other to be better. Yannik, in addition to being No. 55 nationally, is the No. 7-ranked Boys 16s player in the USTA Intermountain Region, which includes Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. It gives him a huge leg up on his competition being able to work out with his older brother.

"Most kids I play in tournaments are his age so I don't have to adapt to a new cadence," Yannik Mahlangu said of Nicholas.

Yannik has since advanced to compete in Boys 18s and is ranked No. 6 in the Intermountain rankings and No. 157 nationally. He has had to endure the same pressure to succeed as Nicholas.

Richman Mahlangu doesn't take it easier on his younger son. In fact, he might be pushing Yannik harder than Nicholas given Nicholas has already realized his ultimate goal of having been accepted into college.

The practices are long and arduous, the drills never end, and the demands for perfection are unceasing. That has been the Mahlangu brothers' tennis world for as long as they can remember.

"I try not to let it bother me," Yannik said of his father's forcefulness. "I know he wants me to be successful, and I want to go to a good college and play tennis as well."

Yannik Mahlangu is already receiving offers from Ivy League schools. Stanford, too, has contacted him. So has Davidson. Obviously, UNLV would love to get him, but Yannik plans to follow his brother and attend school away from home.

"I don't want to stay here for college," he said. "I want to go away somewhere."

With so much of his life invested in tennis, Yannik Mahlangu isn't about to walk away.

"That option wouldn't make sense," he said. "I've tried to look at the big picture, that he doesn't want to hurt me.

"I try to find the least confrontational way. I realize arguing doesn't help anyone. But it's hard."

At age 47, Richman Mahlangu may have experience at parenting and coaching, but he knows he's not perfect. However, he believes his intentions are honorable.

"I'm not as close as I should be with my sons," he said softly. "I've pushed them very hard. But I'm an old-school guy. That's who I am. I'm not going to change."

Jarrell said the challenge for both Richman and his sons has been separating the responsibilities of coach and parent.

"On the court, he's their coach," Jarrell said. "But once they leave the court, he's Dad. You've got to separate the two and, at times, it has been a struggle. But lately, it seems as though Richie's doing a better job of that. He loves his sons and he would do anything for them."

Richman Mahlangu, who currently teaches tennis at the International Tennis Center in Henderson, said it has been difficult being the coach one minute and the parent the next. But he believes he has made progress in that area.

"I'm their father first," he said. "They know that. But I think they still don't fully understand what I've tried to do for them. Twenty years from now, I think they will have a clearer understanding."

His oldest son believes that.

"There's been a lot of conflict," Nicholas Mahlangu said. "I think most tee­nagers go through that. But at the end of the day, I know he wants us to be successful and wants the best for us. In that regard, I've been very fortunate to have a father who cares."

As for their father, he will never admit he did wrong by his sons.

"I really don't care what people think; it's my kids," he said. "It's my responsibility to raise them the way I believe I should. But I'm ready to hand them off to someone else."

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter @stevecarprj.