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The Biofile: Camila Giorgi Interview
30 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
Status: WTA #36.
Ht: 5-6
DOB: December 31, 1991 In: Macerata, Italy
First Memory of Tennis: “When I start to play tennis I was with my oldest brother (Leandro).”
Tennis Inspirations: “I don’t know, I like this game and I enjoy even if it’s the things that are… I just enjoy [smiles].”
Greatest Sports Moment: “I think…greatest…I don’t have greatest moment. I think all matches you win is good. It feels good.”
Most Painful Moment: “Most painful…maybe when I was out a year without playing. Because I was… (injured?)…I was injured, that’s all.”
Favorite Tournament(s): “At Wimbledon.”
Strangest Match: “No, no [laughs].”
Favorite Players To Watch: “Andre Agassi. And Pete Sampras. And (Patrick) Rafter. And Oscar De La Hoya…he won seven world titles (actually ten world titles in six different weight classes).”
Favorite Sport Outside Tennis: “Soccer. Because my younger brother (Amadeus). And boxing.”
First Famous Player You Met Or Encountered: “Oh my God, I don’t remember…Nadal maybe. I don’t know. Nadal I think.”
People Qualities Most Admired: “The character. I mean the good character.”
Interesting Fact: Camila has career singles wins against Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka.
Giorgi says boxing is a favorite sport
Andrew Miller · April 25, 2015 at 2:10 pm
What! No Giorgi pick on the Mayweather-Pacman fight!
Would be cool to see the Giorgi take on Rios, Argentina too as she is Italian by way of Argentina, her dad is Argentine. Supposedly it is all Spanish at home and Italian with her siblngs. She plays in part for her sister who died if i am not mistake n in a car crash?
Id like to see the Giorgis square up with their creditors and then for Giorgi to start making a case for a top five and slam run. she has the game for it and plays a style that just takes it to the opponent. But her style also has a recklessness to it alongside the urgency. She can play like Agassi or like Dolgo on his worst days or DY when he gets down!
Who knows. The future of the wta is completely up for grabs.
Dan Markowitz · April 25, 2015 at 2:30 pm
Kind of disappointing, so much beauty, but not much of a personality if this interview is indicative of how she engages questions. Maybe she just doesn’t speak English well, but you don’t get any kind of idea what type of person she is and she seemed put off by having to do the interview for the most part.
Scoop Malinowski · April 25, 2015 at 2:51 pm
She won a set from Stefan Kozlov in practice last year, right around the same time when Kozlov beat Harrison in a practice set in Boca 62. I saw her play two close sets with Halep on grandstand in Miami, she can play top ten tennis, the question is if she can do it week in and week out. She is the kind of player like a Soderling or Rosol who can just take down anyone at anytime, she has that kind of power and form.
Scoop Malinowski · April 25, 2015 at 2:55 pm
Dan, I didn’t mention how lucky I was to get this interview in Miami without setting it up. I was down in the lower media interview room when someone told me Giorgi was coming down next in one of the smaller interview rooms. She talked to four reporters as scheduled then the WTA liaison asked her if she would do a one on one with me, she agreed, but the WTA guy said I could only ask about five questions. So with him standing right there, it was not the best environment to do a Biofile, but she still gave some good answers. So it’s part my fault for not setting this up properly and getting the right setting.
Bryan · April 25, 2015 at 6:00 pm
Love Camila Giorgi. She’s aggressive as hell and when she keeps the unforced errors down can beat anyone. Been on her bandwagon since she was too broke to be on the tour fulltime. Glad she seems to be doing better financially with some results. Did anyone ever answer if she had to get a backer?
Scoop Malinowski · April 25, 2015 at 6:38 pm
She’s doing better now but still no car. I asked for her car and she doesn’t have one. But Andrei Kozlov has coached her at certain tournaments and he said the father paid him in cash, based on results %. Got a nice chunk of change at Wimbledon and some other tourneys. Kozlov said the Giorgi’s are fair and generous but they don’t want to get locked into a long term deal with any coach. They prefer % of results.
Andrew Miller · April 25, 2015 at 11:28 pm
Yeah, I like Giorgi’s way of grip and rip. She also has an epic style on the court, makes you think she has a good shot at a slam run – getting a final or something like that.
I think she does play for a lot – plays for her dad, not unlike Sharapova (who says: “I do what my dad says!”) and also plays for her sister Antonela, who died in a car crash in Paris something like 4 years ago. She comes from a big family. She has more personality in interviews in other languages, but for the most part she’s guarded as far as I can tell.
Probably for good reason. There’s a lot of pressure riding on Giorgi.
gans · April 26, 2015 at 1:20 am
Camila is incredibly talented. She is actually my favorite player to watch. if she can mix a teaspoon of patience in her attacking game, it will pay off. I have never seen a more offensive woman player before.
If character is an important attribute for her, then she needs to develop one too! I have read stories about she and her dad not returning money or loan or whatever. I hope those are not facts, but if they are then it’s a shame!
Scoop, I also thought the biofile is getting a little monotonous, but now I get it. Too short a time. Maybe, you could have let it go to get it some other time.
Andrew Miller · April 26, 2015 at 1:46 am
I’ve seen 4 offense oriented women:
– Seles
– Venus
– Serena
– Henin
Dan Markowitz · April 26, 2015 at 5:32 am
How about Navratilova? She was the most HARD CHARGING WOMAN TO THE NET. I think she was much more aggressive than the Williams sisters in her way.
Giorgio isn’t even the first or second best female player in Italy. I love watching her play. I think I saw her first play in the Open Qualis two years ago. I would be shocked if she could win 6 matches at a slam and make a finals. Her game is as peripatetic as the way she makes her way through coaching situations.
Scoop Malinowski · April 26, 2015 at 8:16 am
Andrew, I think you may be mis-characterizing Sharapova, I have heard from IMG insiders that the unique thing about Maria is that “she always wanted it more than her father”, which is uncommon in tennis families. Giorgi loves tennis IMO and she is a bit on the shy side, the language barrier factor is also a reason why she may seem guarded.
Scoop Malinowski · April 26, 2015 at 10:26 am
Gans, I thought about that but decided to post it anyway, as she has a fan favorite and she rarely does one on one interviews (I haven’t seen any). Not all Biofiles turn out great like Brian Gottfried or Jared Donaldson or Francis Tiafoe, but still I hope you learned some insights about one of the most compelling players in the WTA.
Scoop Malinowski · April 26, 2015 at 10:32 am
Andrew, aren’t about all the WTA players offensive baseline sluggers? I think the discussion should be about which are the players who favor defensive or varied tactics? Aga, Schiavone, Niculescu, Caro, Jankovic, Flipken, Suarez Navarro.
Andrew Miller · April 26, 2015 at 12:42 pm
Dan and Scoop – sure thing, I just haven’t seen someone go for it like Giorgi in a while, it’s the impatient part of her game that is cool for me – there’s a volatility to it. Guy like Agassi channeled that, focused it and turned it into wins. Giorgi’s trigger-happy at her best and worst – you just never know what’s coming. Something Gulbis was doing at his best and worst also – it may not be an effective way to play but it’s fun to watch.
And on Sharapova, sure I’m sure that’s true too. I just go off what she said in one on court interview in January 2015. Take it from her, not me!
“One phone call was all it took for Maria Sharapova to shake off whatever it was that almost ended her Australian Open.
“I don’t want to face that phone call with my father too many times during a tournament,” Sharapova said Tuesday after a very different sort of match.
The five-time Grand Slam winner moved one step closer to another Australian title, defeating 20-year-old Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals, making all the big points look easy. The win sets up an all-Russian semifinal against No. 10 Ekaterina Makarova.
Asked exactly what her father, Yuri — who taught her to play the game and had coached her for many years — had said, Sharapova chuckled and gave what she called the “nice version.”
“It was like, ‘This is unacceptable,'” she said, smiling and then added that she prefers direct criticism to a glossed-over pep talk.
“I like real people and honesty,” said the 27-year-old player who is Russian but moved to the United States at the age of 9 to train at the famed Nick Bollettieri tennis academy in Florida.
“I don’t need … people telling me, ‘You’re great, you’ll improve in the next one.’ If you played a terrible match, you played a terrible match,” Sharapova said. “Go out there and change whatever it takes to turn things around.”
—–
Also something to like a lot about Sharapova, no sugar-coating – maybe sugarpova candy but when it comes to day in day out, just tell it to her straight.
Andrew Miller · April 26, 2015 at 12:45 pm
I liked how Bouchard was playing in Australia and Paris in 2014 also. Tenacious. She lost all of it after Paris. Jon Wertheim at SI.com likes Bouchard’s chances, feels she’ll get some wins soon enough, fill up the confidence tank and get back in the game.
Andrew Miller · April 26, 2015 at 12:51 pm
Dan, I like Navratilova’s style too. Not one not to appreciate a lot of different players’ styles, I liked Sabatini’s topspin backhand etc – but not the cream puff serve! Sorry to say, even I could have returned the Sabatini serve 🙁
And that is true, Giorgi’s not the top tier even in Italy. Errani’s got superior results, FlavPannetta too. I think Giorgi is unique in how she manuevers the ball and feeds off momentum, she just grips and rips for angles. Sharpens up that serve, add some doubles to work on other aspects of the game and we may see a nice rankings bump and more tournament trophies.
All that’s hypothetical, but there’s no doubt that she plays a unique game, even when compared with the ball smashing players ahead of her. Maybe it’s the ball on the rise – she really gets a quick read on the ball.
I liked Mirza’ huge forehand also but she was really up and down. Maybe there was a mechanics problem there or something about not being able to get her shot off. She’s now the world’s best doubles player, which is great. I just thought in singles we’d see more from Mirza.
Prediction is folly.
Scoop Malinowski · April 26, 2015 at 3:13 pm
Maria’s in maybe her worst slump ever. She’s been sent packing early from IW, Miami and now Stuttgart, I think she lost her first match at all three events.
Scoop Malinowski · April 26, 2015 at 3:14 pm
With Mirza, it’s her movement and lack of size, she’s much better covering half the court. Though she did have some big singles wins early in her career, such as beating Kuznetsova.
Dan Markowitz · April 27, 2015 at 12:18 pm
Nishikori looked good this week. Could we be looking at a Kei-Novak French finals?
This kid Hyeon Chung, the 18-yr-old from Korea, must be dang good. He won Savannah only dropping one set the entire tourney and routined McGee in the finals. Wow, can he be the next teen after Kyrgios, Coric and Kokkanaikis to really break through to the other side and start playing consistently on ATP Tour.
Scoop Malinowski · April 27, 2015 at 12:27 pm
Chung is the real deal, saw him upset Granollers in Miami in three sets. Also saw him play singles and doubles in Sarasota. Consistent but also can pop the big accurate winners. The kid has the X factor. Will make it big.
Andrew Miller · April 27, 2015 at 1:34 pm
If Rubin wins ncaas, will he turn pro?
Scoop Malinowski · April 27, 2015 at 4:20 pm
If Rubin wins NCAA’s like his mentor Johnny Mac I would imagine he turns pro. But there are a lot of obstacles to get by in NCAAs.
Andrew Miller · April 28, 2015 at 1:09 pm
…such as parties and rescheduled exams!
Andrew Miller · April 28, 2015 at 1:12 pm
Ncaa champs are interesting. Generally speaking they can compete at the challenger level or higher–Steve Johnson is the example. But he’s no ordinary ncaa champ…he was undefeated his last two years .
Dan Markowitz · April 28, 2015 at 1:40 pm
Recent NCAA champs have been horrible. Klahn maybe was the best, but I’m think Devin Britton and Devarrman and who else? I can’t even remember who won the NCAA’s. Far cry from when I was in college and Mac, Mayotte, and Gene Mayer, well before me, were winning NCAA’s. Who won it last year, Marcus Giron? I don’t even see him playing pro events.
Scoop Malinowski · April 28, 2015 at 3:29 pm
I was watching some of Oklahoma vs. Baylor and these players look like top hundred ATP level players. I can’t see any difference.
Dan markowitz · April 28, 2015 at 5:50 pm
The difference is very few if any will probably be 100 players. Besides Rola who I don’t even think is top 100 anymore, who’s an NCAA player in top 100 beside Izzie and SteveJo? You want to go back to Becker? The American who went to college besides those two have all failed to be ATP players: sandgren, Williams, Klahn, Jenkins, Frank, Shabazz, you name it.
Amazing that too schools now are not in California except USC.
Andrew Miller · April 29, 2015 at 8:41 am
Id root for Stephens and Keys too. And Jamie Hampton of the sweet game.
Andrew Miller · April 29, 2015 at 8:43 am
Horrible? Theyve been good. Rola doing well. Isner and SteveJo have really earned the ncaa respect.
Guga Beluga · April 30, 2015 at 1:17 pm
i wonder if maria’s having guy-trouble with dimi LOL