Tennis Prose




Jan/12

30

Biofile with Steve Flink


Status: Tennis historian, journalist, author, reporter, editor, member of USTA Eastern Hall of Fame.

First Tennis Memory: “Watching the Davis Cup final in 1964 in my father’s apartment, Fred Stolle and Dennis Ralston playing their five set match. I got the bug a little for tennis then. Then the real turning point came in June 1965 when my father had moved to London. One day he said, ‘We’re going to Wimbledon.’ I watched Rafael Osuna play Ingo Buding of Germany on a cloudy day. I felt like I was immersed in that match. After that match, every day in the newspaper the first thing I looked for was the tennis agate results. From that point forward I’d go to Wimbledon and the U.S. Open each year. That day with Osuna drew me in completely. Osuna was a beautiful player, very elegant, so smooth and stylish, he made it look easier. He was the right guy to see at the time.”

Last Book Read: “Was the biography of Howard Cosell. A very compelling story.”

Favorite Movies: “I just saw the Clooney film The Descendents, which was excellent. The Apartment with Jack Lemmon. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. I’m leaving out a few.”

First Job: “My first job was with my father who was running a business in London. I did a lot of errands, delivering packages all over London. It was a great way to learn your way around London, taking all the subways. I was 17 or 18.”

Favorite Meal: “Either an excellent hamburger or steak. I’d say steak with baked potato with spinach. I never lost my taste for steak though I don’t eat it as much now.”

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “Coffee. And I don’t drink coffee by the way.”

Greatest Career Moment: “It’s so hard to narrow it down. I would single out…I’d say the two Wimbledon finals of Borg and McEnroe in 1980. And Federer-Nadal in 2008. I was lucky enough to have been there to experience those. Then, I’d have to say, for a lot of reasons, the Sampras win over Agassi for his last major. Knowing what he’d been through and endured the last two years of his career. I thought that was an exhilarating moment to see him do that. So it’s a three-way tie.”

Most Painful Moment: “I think it was the 1984 U.S. Open final when Chris Evert lost to Martina Navratilova for the 13th time in a row. It looked like she was going to win, she won the first set but lost in three. I’d known her for a long time. I thought that was going to be one of her golden moments. She played some great tennis, the crowds were behind her that day. I found that painful.”

Favorite Tournament: “Is Wimbledon. Maybe because it’s the first major I’d went to. The eyes of the world are watching that tournament, even the casual sports fan.”

Funniest Player(s) Encountered: “Nastase was. He could drift from humor to anger very swiftly. He was a multi-faceted character. He was a natural comedian at times, when he was not losing his temper. Obviously, there were a lot of scenes that were not funny. He’d lose emotional control and get nasty. But there were times he was very, very amusing.”

Toughest Competitors: “I think Nadal, to me, is a standout. Without his ferocity, he’d have won maybe four or five Grand Slam tournaments, not ten. He’s shown more resilience to me than anyone else. Pancho Gonzales would lose his temper and play twice as well. He was an incredible competitor. He would impose his will on a match. It was very hard for even players like Rod Laver to play Gonzales – they knew how fearless he was. Sampras learned to dig very deep. The best example was the Corretja match at the U.S. Open. He was in just terrible shape, sick, dehydrated, yet he found a way to win. I don’t think he was given enough credit for his competitiveness, because Pete was more low key compared to Nadal and Gonzales. Chris Evert had the ability to draw on mental fortitude to win matches. She was going to be there until the very end. And she would never lose her cool. Another very tough competitor I thought was Monica Seles. There was an intensity and a fierceness to her that was intimidating to all her rivals, including Graf, at times.”

Favorite Players To Watch: “Rod Laver would be one. I was lucky enough to watch him when I was very young, in 1969, when he won the Grand Slam. Laver was so dazzling, such a shotmaker, so complete. I liked watching Arthur Ashe, he was electrifying, so adventurous, sometimes to his own detriment, especially in his younger days. In his latter days he was much more or a strategist than a flashy shotmaker. His most brilliant strategic performance was winning Wimbedon in 1975 against Connors. I liked watching Sampras, he had the most beautiful serve I’ve ever seen. Who am I leaving out? There’s just so many. I like watching Nadal and Federer, for different reasons. The grace and elegance of Federer. I loved watching Maria Bueno. She was like a ballerina on the court. Goolagong as well. I like watching Serena Williams, when she’s in the best of shape and is competing at her best and fully into it. I like the spunk and spirit she brings to it. The list could be endless.”

Funny Tennis Memory: “I think it was – in 1976 Nastase been disqualified in Palm Springs for bad behavior by Charlie Hare, a great, dignified British chair umpire. Then later in the year Hare was back refereeing a U.S. Open match with Nastase and Hans Pohmann. Again, the worst side of Nastase came out, he spit at photographers, almost got into a fist fight with Pohmann. I wondered why Charlie Hare didn’t disqualify Nastase again, like he had earlier in the year. After the match I went to see Charlie in the office and asked him about it. And he replied, in his British accent, ‘You must understand that what we saw out there today was great human drama. For me to interrupt that would have been the wrong thing to do.’ I had trouble containing my laughter, that was one of my more amusing moments.”

Favorite Sport Outside Tennis: “Baseball. I enjoy a lot of games over the summer. (Mets or Yankees?) Yankees.”

Favorite Tennis Books: “Handful of Summers by Gordon Forbes was a beauty. I loved the Fireside Book Of Tennis. It culled all the great articles from newspapers by Allison Danzig, the British writers, Bud Collins, it covers the spectrum, from the 1920’s to the 70’s. That was a treasure. I still love to go back to it. Joel Drucker’s Jimmy Connors Saved My Life was a great book. And I thought Steve Tignor’s book High Strung (Bjorn Borg-John McEnroe and the Untold Story of Tennis’s Fiercest Rivalry) was beautifully done and the best written tennis book I have ever read. I thought it was excellent.”

People Qualities Most Admired: “Dignity. Composure. Earnestness. True to yourself, no pretenses. Decency. Integrity. Humor. Compassion.”

Education: Stetson University

Career Accomplishments: Inducted into the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame in 2010; Former Editor World Tennis Magazine; Contributing Editor Tennis Week magazine; Author of “The Greatest Tennis Matches Of The Twentieth Century” and “The Greatest Tennis Matches Of All Time” which will be published in June 2012.

1 comment

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 31, 2012 at 2:14 am

    Steve Flink is one of the great American media guys, universally respected, been around since the days he edited at the legendary WORLD TENNIS magazine, also at Tennis Week, Tennis Channel, US Open drawsheet, etc etc. His new book is coming out soon about the greatest matches of all time and it will include the Djokovic Rafa final in Melbourne.

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