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The Marcelo Rios Family Praised My Book
I was fortunate to meet Marcelo Rios and his mom and dad tonight at the Waldorf Astoria ATP Number One Celebration on Friday night. I am very proud that they all read and enjoyed the book.
After the formal part of the celebration, the Rios group stayed for a while after and were conversing up front near the stage, with his former agent Jeff Schwartz and a few others.
His dad Jorge approached me first introducing himself as Jorge Rios the father of Marcelo. I was a bit surprised at first, he looked straight into my eyes very serious. At first I wasn’t sure how he felt, but I held my ground and didn’t blink. A handsome strong man, he spoke slowly but firmly in very good English. He said he read it four months ago and he thought I did a very good job with the book, he knew I did a lot of “hard work” and he stated that he liked the unique way I did it and especially how so many of the players expressed respect for his son.
He also told me this was their first time to NYC in fifteen years and that Marcelo had also been to NYC when he was two years old.
Marcelo’s mom Alicia, a small woman with a bright, happy smile said, “Thank you very much for writing a book about my son,” before giving me a hug.
Marcelo Rios also came over to me and said, “So you’re Scoop,” and I replied, “So you’re Marcelo.” We had a little embrace. Marcelo also expressed that he liked the book, except for a few things said by “anonymous” people that weren’t true, but overall he added, “it was pretty good.”
It was a very special night. Very happy that the Rios family enjoyed my book and the unique way it was constructed. Stay tuned for photos (my phone battery died earlier in the night and tennis writer Kamakshi Tandon has the only other photos of me with the Rios clan).
(Note: Marcelo Rios: The Man We Barely Knew is available at amazon.com and also the U.S. Open bookstore.)
Marcelo Rios: "It was pretty good."
Thomas Tung · August 26, 2013 at 12:43 am
Hey Scoop, sorry I missed you/Dan this past Friday (work-related stuff came up). But I’m good for this Monday/Tuesday, so hopefully I’ll see you there — I’ll be hanging around the Time Warner display area near the main gate around 11am …