ITF

OBSERVE HAROLD MAYOT ON COURT AND THE CONCLUSIONS DRAWN ARE LIKELY TO BE VASTLY DIFFERENT TO THOSE MADE SHOULD any time be spent in the company of the teenage Frenchman. During the eye of the storm, it is fair to say that Mayot might come across as brash and petulant, but away from the heat of battle nothing could be further from the truth. He is mature, charming and engaging. Such a perception is not news to the 17-year-old, who has a tattoo of a lion on his back which he says depicts his intra-match persona. Quizzed further on his love for body art and a more sensitive side to his nature emerges. "The first one I'm going to show you is this one," he tells ITFWorld, pulling down his t-shirt to reveal his chest. "It says: 'Forgive but never forget' and that is a little bit of my story from when I was young. "My parents are not together now and I think I suffered a bit from that. I have more tattoos but the other main one is a lion on my back. That symbolises me as I try to be a lion on court, play and be like this. "On court, I know I am not always very calm and can sometimes be disrespectful with the umpire. I realise this and I am trying to improve as I do not want people to think that I am a bad boy. "Off court, I am a completely different person, a good person, or at least I certainly try to be. The best advice I have ever received is to be yourself and not another person. I try just to be humble, respect everyone, stay as calm as possible and give the best of myself." In sport, the person behind the player is often ignored or forgotten. In many respects, Mayot considers himself an archetypal teenager, saying: "I am just a normal young man. I like music and cinema. I am also very close to my brother and I love spending time with him." When asked to reveal something very few people would know, Mayot, who featured for France at the 2018 Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Finals in Budapest, interjects by revealing a fear of snakes. "One day I was running and I encountered some in front of me. I was so scared," he adds. 34 ITFWorld // WINTER 2019/20 LION KING J U N I O R S France's Harold Mayot enjoyed a blistering end to 2019 and is one of the players to keep an eye on in 2020. ITFWorld learns more about the talented teenager

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