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Today I Offered WTA Biofiles To WTA Site
17 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
Hi WTA; Think the site is lacking in original creative content which promotes the personalities and charisma of the players. My Biofile interview feature will fill this void. Sample below… Please consider, thanks, Mark Scoop Malinowski www.tennis-prose.com
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Biofile Danielle Collins
By Scoop Malinowski
Status: WTA ranking 34. Winner of two career WTA singles titles.
DOB: December 13, 1993 in St. Petersburg, FL
Height: 5-10
First Tennis Memory: “Crawling on the court when my dad (Wally) would play his league matches. (age?) Probably like one or two.”
Tennis Inspirations: “Hingis. The Williams sisters. Kournikova. Who else…Wozniacki. Sharapova.”
Last Book Read: “Ghosted.”
First Famous Player You Met or Encountered: “Justine Henin at Saddlebook (age 10).”
Greatest Career Moment: “Australian Open final (2022).”
Most Painful Moment: “…painful moment…probably having wrist surgery after I won NCAA my sophomore year (at University of Virginia).”
Current Car: “I drive an Audi Q3 (white).”
Favorite Tournaments: “Indian Wells, Fed Cup and Australian Open.”
Funniest Players Encountered: “Madison Brengle for sure…Christian Harrison.”
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “Mint chocolate chip.”
Funny Tennis Memory: “There’s a lot. We’re always laughing out here… that’s a good question…probably falling on my face in Wuhan. Bad fall. Really bad fall.”
Strangest Match: “Playing Sonia Kenin in a semifinal in Norman, Oklahoma. Really windy. And all the referee’s chairs were flying around the court. Ridiculous. (Who won?) I did.”
Favorite Sport Outside Tennis: “Hockey.”
Three Athletes You Like To Watch: “Lebron James…I’m just not like a fan person. Alex Killorn from hockey (Tampa Lightning).”
Why Do You Love Tennis: “I love tennis because I think competition makes everyone better. And I love embracing the challenge of competition.”
Fiercest Competitors Encountered: “…I think Coco Vandeweghe.”
Closest Tennis Friends: “Madison Brengle. Sonia Kenin. Allison Riske. Nicole Melichar. Who else…that’s about it.”
People Qualities Most Admired: “Enthusiastic. Witty. And honest.”
Which Match(es) Were You At Your Best:Â “There’s been a lot of good ones…Â … (Maybe it hasn’t happened yet?)…Hasn’t happened yet. Good option [smiles].”
Here is another Biofile sample with Barbora Krejcikova
Barbora Krejcikova · Biofile · Danielle Collins · Interview · WTA
Cory · August 18, 2023 at 7:58 am
Good luck Scoop! (unless this is an older repost about your attempt)
I agree with you and many readers who have posited the WTA’s lack of good branding or content. IDK where they stand today with streaming, but for many years they had no ala carte streaming options. I remember about 5 years ago paying for WTA TV (their streaming option at the time) and the quality was atrocious, and the interface terrible.
The WTA needs to do something. There are endless women’s tennis fans yet the WTA remains feckless and aimless.
I remember when TennisTV had WTA matches too. It was great.
IMO the WTA ranking system (how they mandate certain tourneys over others, their pts system) needs either serious change or an overhaul).
Sorry, but stating perhaps the obvious.
Scoop Malinowski · August 18, 2023 at 8:13 am
Cory, thanks, I sent the WTA the offer yesterday. No response. I might even up the ante and offer free Biofiles for six months, including the promise to include posting the Margaret Court Biofile as part of the deal. If they decline that it would show some heads need to roll or they are simply intolerant of my conservative politics. The wta site is borderline disaster and in desperate need of quality fresh creative content like Biofile would provide.
catherine · August 18, 2023 at 3:19 pm
The WTA is stuck in the mud and won’t change Scoop. I’m pretty sure the people there are aware of your conservative politics and don’t want any possibility of your expressions of them on the site.
However if we could go back in time I would certainly have used your Biofiles in our magazine, minus the politics. But that’s a sensible idea the WTA wouldn’t contemplate.
Scoop Malinowski · August 18, 2023 at 4:25 pm
Catherine only very very rarely do politics surface in a Biofile. I remember one example in the early 90s I did a Biofile with Major League Baseball player Andy Van Slyke for Baseball America a bi weekly newspaper, a known conservative and he said his hobbies were among other things, reading about pork barrel spending and listening to Rush Limbaugh (conservative radio show host). Well, weeks later one reader wrote a letter that he was canceling his subscription because of the Van Slyke Biofike which offended his liberal sensitivities. Van Slyke was a bold, extrovert and also I remember he told me one of his favorite athletes to watch was “Gabriela Sabatini – she’s my girlfriend and she doesn’t even know it.” A really funny guy and great Biofile. But thanks for hiring me to do Biofiles, a few decades after the fact )What was the name of this magazine?
catherine · August 19, 2023 at 6:17 am
I’ve mentioned the magazine before but it had a mainly British circulation and I doubt ever reached US shores. Originally known as ‘Lawn Tennis’ and started by a British Davis Cup player. He knew Gene Scott BTW which is how I came to interview Gene. NYT magazine division then bought the mag, wasn’t impressed by the profits (nil) and sold it again. Re-emerged as ‘Tennis’ as part of a yachting group and stayed there, with me as editor until sold in the 90s and later closed.
I didn’t like the new owners so left. Print tennis mags don’t work in the UK – small readership and smaller advertisng.
We could publish what we liked so your Biofiles would have fitted in quite well. A couple of our contributors won prizes for writing and photography which was nice.
Scoop Malinowski · August 19, 2023 at 8:00 am
Catherine, the key to success and the challenge for a magazine or tennis web site is creating and producing quality content. I’ve seen a lot of magazines that look great but the content is ordinary, stale, lacking. Or over-focusing on the same old big stars and corporate interests. The greatest tennis publication I ever read was Gene Scott’s Tennis Week. I just learned last week Justin Gimelstob’s dad Barry (RIP) bought three subscriptions to Tennis Week for his business office, he loved it that much. Tennis has so many fascinating characters and stories but the magazines don’t capture that element of the sport, it’s all about Coco, RF, Rafa, Carlos and the same old cast. The same old boring formula stories. I try to do it different from the rest here and the feedback and readership suggest my content is well received, grateful for that. I’ve actually had some readers tell me they prefer this site over http://www.tennis.com which I found both shocking but also not so shocking.
catherine · August 20, 2023 at 1:50 am
So it’s going to be Gauff v the Rest for the foreseeable ? Or maybe Gauff v Swiatek.
Muchova played well to beat Sabalenka but I’ve got a feeling Aryna’s game won’t change much now and that’s it really.
Scoop Malinowski · August 20, 2023 at 7:11 am
Looks like everything has aligned now for Cocomania to reach it’s zenith. They couldn’t have written a script with better timing either. She’s going to win the US Open and save the wta.
catherine · August 22, 2023 at 1:57 am
Halep is officially out of the USO. Guilty or innocent this is a shocking scandal. No one should be treated in this way.
Shows the WTA to be a spineless useless organization which is quite incapable of protecting the players.
Simona’s career has ended in disgrace. A bungle from start to finish.
Scoop Malinowski · August 22, 2023 at 7:44 am
Or she’s guilty Catherine, if she was truly innocent she would be screaming injustice and taking legal actions. But she’s staying silent and waiting patiently as her career and rep are being ruined.
catherine · August 22, 2023 at 11:56 am
In English Common Law you’re innocent until proven guilty. Simona hasn’t been found guilty of anything, just accusations/suppositions. I wouldn’t say she’s silent either but the process over the past year seems so long drawn out and complicated I wouldn’t be surprised if many people have lost track of the details and exactly which organisations are involved.
Total total shambles and Simona disappears from history. Will the AEC remove her name from their list of champions ?
The WTA seems good at vanishing people. Where’s the Chinese player a whole circuit was sacrificed for and now doesn’t seem to matter anymore ?
Scoop Malinowski · August 22, 2023 at 7:49 pm
Peng Shuai is around, she was at a junior tournament recently, Chinese journalist shared the photos recently on X. Simona is letting her career be railoaded into a black hole. If she is innocent she needs to be doing interviews and saying this is the worst injustice of the decade. SHe just posted a photo of her on vacation in Italy.
Scoop Malinowski · August 22, 2023 at 9:02 pm
Today I offered the WTA six months of FREE WTA Biofile interviews to upgrade their content for tennis fans, starting with Coco Gauff, Krejcikova, Su Wei Hsieh and Danielle Collins. So far, no response.
catherine · August 23, 2023 at 7:48 am
Simona’s not Maria Sharapova. Yes, she’ll let herself be sidelined is my suspicion.
And if she’s on holiday in Italy I can’t realy fault her for that – what else can she do ? Volunteer as a practice partner for Raducanu ?
Re your Biofiles – WTA’s not interested and there’s no room on their horrible cramped website anyway. Keep them for T-P.
catherine · August 23, 2023 at 12:09 pm
Marion Bartoli thinks women aren’t famous any more:
“I almost feel if you go into the street and say the names Steffi Graf and Monica Seles, they would be more known than some of the top ten current players.”
“It’s due to the fact that those past champions were there all the time and people could recognise the name going deep in every Grand Slam and you get familiar with the names.
“The WTA is suffering with new names coming in, which is great for stories like Emma Raducanu coming in from qualifying and winning the US Open. But then they disappear and another one is coming and you might not be able to follow that all the time.
“It’s going to be interesting to see if the girls who are now in the top ten are able to really establish themselves and to come out every single year and perform with consistency.
“That said, if Naomi Osaka is coming back, that name is really famous and she can get a lot of fans coming in and watching, as well as Angelique Kerber and [Caroline] Wozniacki.’
Marion forgets that in her day the person in the street hardly knew her name and apart from the top three or four they didn’t know anyone else’s either. Nothing’s changed.
Women’s tennis relies on a very few names filling the seats. Always been a problem.
Kerber is around 36+ or so with a baby and Woz won’t be winning anything.
Raducanu is practising at the LTA centre with some of the guys. Looking smooth,slim, delicate. And guess what? The hate’s already begun.
Scoop Malinowski · August 23, 2023 at 7:35 pm
Will do Catherine, I just Biofiled Marta kostyuk today.
Scoop Malinowski · August 24, 2023 at 10:40 am
Catherine, the problem for the WTA is it’s three biggest stars are all on the sidelines now Osaka, Raducanu and Serena. And Sabalenka, Iga, Ons, Rybakina just don’t move the needle. Cocomania is arriving at precisely just the right time. Winning a grand slam like Bartoli and Kenin and Ostapenko does not guarantee automatic superstardom. But it should. Winning a Grand Slam is a miraculous achievement. The media and establishment should treat Kenin and Coco, who will win the 2023 US Open, equally the same.