Tennis Prose




Apr/18

7

Federer wants players to share more with media

rogbrisb

By Scoop Malinowski

Roger Federer is as open as any tennis player we’ve ever seen. In all of his interviews, Federer holds nothing back and reveals his deepest thoughts and feelings very articulately.

Naturally, such a candid, sincere person would like to see his peers in professional tennis be similar in their approach to dealing with the media.

“I feel like sometimes some players have gotten a little bit too robot-like,” Federer said earlier this year during a press conference at the Australian Open.

“I would like to see more players just being really themselves in front of the press, not worrying so much about making mistakes.”

I remember Maria Sharapova once said she gets the same, repetitive questions every week on the WTA Tour that she doesn’t even have to think, she just answers like a machine with the same stream of cliches.

A lot of players fall into the same mental state of blankness as Maria, from having to answer the same, dreadfully dull questions about their game, their match or their schedule.

With Biofile interviews I don’t suffer through having to endure cliched answers and my questions always provoke interesting replies and thoughts.

Hopefully, Federer’s request for players to be more open will also challenge the media to be more creative and specific with their questions to the players. Because the majority of players will not give sizzling content to a boring question, although some players like Dmitry Tursunov, Andrea Ptekovic, Ryan Harrison, Ernests Gulbis are always entertaining and insightful interviews.

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17 comments

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 3:53 am

    Roger wants everyone to be like him (‘why don’t the other guys play like me ?’) but the truth is not all players are at ease with media persons, whose questions can range from idiotic to downright intrusive.

    And not everyone wants to be ‘really themselves’ to a bunch of people they don’t know. Some people are naturally reticent and private in front of the press, some are openly contemptuous (Venus), some just exasperated. And some, just a few, may have good reasons for being defensive in these situations. Nothing necessarily wrong there.

    I think the press need coaching as well in the kind of questions they ask – how to avoid closed questions (answer just yes or no), long rambling questions which have virtually answered themselves by the end, questions which show little knowledge of the game and the reporter is just there to get a quote, etc etc.

    I’ve heard even Federer lose his patience on occasion –

    Press person : ‘Roger, can you take us through those final games in the second set?’

    Roger (incredulous) : ‘what, point by point ? Look, I’ve got other things to do.’

    Exit Roger.

    Andrea Petkovic is an unusual example of a player who can manipulate the media. She is extremely bright and knows exactly how to present herself. She,like Roger, also speaks fluent English which is obviously not the case with many players. Alas, Andrea is in the twilight of her career and her press conference theatrics will be missed.

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 5:37 am

    Everything ok now.

    Any comments on Davis Cup from around the place ? Hewitt talks again about proposed changes.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 8, 2018 at 8:31 am

    Good points Catherine, press conferences are 90% softball lobs and the majority are not even worth attending. It’s a silly but required exercise that most players would probably prefer to skip but the fans have a right and want to know what the players have to say after wins and losses. Certain players are very good in press conferences though, like Kuerten, Muster, Tomic, Hewitt, Petko, most of the Russians, Halep has gotten pretty good too.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 8, 2018 at 8:32 am

    Catherine, Yes Hewitt is the only prominent player standing up to save the Davis Cup, I will post a story about it later.

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 8:55 am

    Scoop – I’m having a problem with T-P.I post a comment and it appears but when I leave the page, or the site, for a while and the come back , it’s gone and won’t reappear for up to an hour. Loads very lowly on ‘submit’. Is this to do with me or T-P ? It’s happened since am Sunday.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 8, 2018 at 9:51 am

    Catherine; I haven’t noticed anything faulty. Will keep an eye on it. Sorry for any inconvenience. Hopefully it was just a one off glitch in the system couple hours or so. Otherwise I’m stumped about these things. But have a tech guy who always helps out when glitches arise.

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 12:27 pm

    Thanks Scoop. If you see this message and then it disappears and then reappears you’ll know what I mean. I’ll wait and see if things settle down.

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 12:39 pm

    Yep – this is what happens – I left a message for you at 12.27 pm my time which was submitted and appeared on the this thread. Then I went off T-P and have just come back to find it gone. It’s like it’s taken away somewhere and then returned !

    I’ll submit this one and leave it so you can see my answer.
    I hope it’s not my end – everything else seems to work ok.

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 1:32 pm

    Bertens beats Keys in Charleston so is into the final.

    I’ll submit this and all my other commemnts will reappear. Hope this can be sorted or I’ll have to stop posting for a while. I just can’t think what is happening.

  • Hartt · April 8, 2018 at 2:57 pm

    Catherine, I had the same problem in the Hewitt column comments. As soon as I posted again, the missing one magically appeared!

    I saw the last couple games of Goerges vs Sevastova, which Julia won. So I will try to watch at least part of the final.

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    Julia G bts Sevastova and plays final v Bertens later today. SS over Sevastova and Bertens played 3 v Keys so Julia may not be too tired.

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 3:04 pm

    Sorry Hartt didn’t see your comment. This blip is infuriating. I have to reboot the computer to make the comment reappear, which it does in the end. I probably won’t stay up for the final but Julia has done well.

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    Abracadabra !

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 8, 2018 at 6:21 pm

    Bertens looked like Roland Garros champ, really powerful and solid steady consistent firepower and a little trickery and touch shots to surprise Keys. Bertens is like a white Serena without the serve. Big strong solid player. She just walloped Goerges in the final.

  • catherine · April 8, 2018 at 10:23 pm

    Yes, Julia isn’t at her best against an opponent like Bertens, or on clay, but she did better than I expected in Charleston and I’ll be interested to see how Bertens does in Europe shortly.

  • catherine · April 9, 2018 at 2:45 am

    Muguruza won in Monterrey but let’s not get too excited. She struggled past Babos in 3 sets.

    Djokovic is returning to his old coach. What next ?

  • catherine · April 9, 2018 at 3:03 am

    Julia was clearly exhausted after only 1’45” break – she’s not the toughest player physically. Maybe a bit more on the training side might help.

    Not a great crowd in Charleston – because there were no Americans in the final ? Or just lack of interest ?

    Scoop – still having the posting problem. Can you ask your techie for advice on what’s wrong ? Basically, just takes a very long time for the post to appear if you leave the site – like an hour +

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