  Success in sports is a complex phenomenon that has only garnered limited
research attention. In particular, we lack a deep scientific understanding of
success in sports like tennis and the factors that contribute to it. Here, we
study the unfolding of tennis players' careers to understand the role of early
career stages and the impact of specific tournaments on players' trajectories.
We employ a comprehensive approach combining network science and analysis of
ATP tournament data and introduce a novel method to quantify tournament
prestige based on the eigenvector centrality of the co-attendance network of
tournaments. Focusing on the interplay between participation in central
tournaments and players' performance, we find that the level of the tournament
where players achieve their first win is associated with becoming a top player.
This work sheds light on the critical role of the initial stages in the
progression of players' careers, offering valuable insights into the dynamics
of success in tennis.
