Biofile Ray Collins Interview

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By Scoop Malinowski

Ray Collins grew up playing tennis until his love of broadcasting took center stage. He chose a Capitol Hill internship over continuing with college tennis. But his abilities on a mic and his love of the game wound up intersecting, allowing him to cover pro tennis for various media–and being on the mic during pro and celebrity matches. Ray has been the ‘voice’ of the Sarasota Open, a similar women’s challenger event in the Naples area and countless exhibitions along the way. He spent nearly 35 years on radio and TV before switching into real estate a few years ago where he’s already transacted nearly $70 million in sales putting him in the top 2% of local Realtors. He’s also an elected official, a travel writer and a media consultant.

First memory of tennis: I’m the youngest of six kids and tennis was always part of our household. I recall initially resisting when I was around 7 or 8 years of age–and one of my brothers saying “If you’re going to be in this family, you’re going to play tennis.” I thought I better start playing since I wasn’t working yet and couldn’t cook.

We lived in a suburb of Buffalo (Amherst) where there was an excellent summer recreation program. It included daily tennis lessons at a dozen public courts–including the high school near our house. I’d ride over every morning on my banana-seat bike carrying a wood Jack Kramer racquet with a white tennis ball jammed in the spokes. I wound up playing five different sports in high school–but tennis was always my favorite.

Tennis inspirations: I guess seeing how much my father (photo below) loved tennis really inspired me. He used to play several days a week year round–which meant indoors during the bitter cold winter. When I was younger I’d often go with him. I enjoyed being around it. His friends were very kind to me. I was the self-appointed–and probably annoying–ball boy for a few games until I saw a squirrel or some other distraction. My father would usually hit with me afterwards.

It was a competitive family though. Even though I was no. 1 singles in my high school and no. 5 singles in my college (St. Bonaventure), I was still probably only no. 3 in my own family! Our doubles matches were very serious. Ugh.

First famous player you met: That’s a funny question–because the first famous player I met wasn’t famous yet: There was a kid a year younger than me and quite a bit shorter who I’d always see at the Buffalo Tennis Center. I’d see him playing chess in the lobby of the tennis club or talking to the pro shop staff until a court opened up for him to jump on and play. It really baffled me when he filled-in with my father’s doubles group. Why were they asking him and not me? But while I was competing with other 12-year olds, he became the best player in Western New York, among kids AND adults.

Next thing I knew, he was moving to Florida to start training with someone named Nick Bolletteiri on Longboat Key at a place called The Colony Resort owned by a Buffalo orthodontist named Dr. Murf Klauber. Of course, Jimmy Arias went on to be no. 5 in the world–and it’s a coincidence we live a mile apart in Sarasota after growing up 1200 miles away in the Buffalo area. He and his wife Gina have become friends. I’ve been the ceremonial umpire for several of his charity exhibition matches and we’ve developed a nice rapport. Several mutual friends both here and up north. It was fascinating to witness his career from start to finish.

One of my father’s best friends was a famous sportscaster in Buffalo and the ‘voice’ of the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Braves (now Los Angeles Clippers). Van Miller would recruit my father as a fourth with a number of the pro athletes and big names. I know he played with O.J. Simpson and a few others. I remember playing with the owner of the Buffalo Bills, Ralph Wilson, when I was a teenager. I recall he wore khakis and a v-neck sweater and was very proper–but fun. (Being exposed to Van was probably the reason I first got the bug to get into broadcasting. He was so fun to be around, and he let me come shadow him at his TV station anytime my parents could drop me off for a few hours. I wound up interning at his station during college and then came back mid-career to anchor the news there.)

Back when I interned on Capitol Hill in 1983, I overheard Brit Hume (then of ABC News) saying his singles game for the next morning had canceled on him. I heard myself say, “I can play.” I won.

Greatest tennis moment: That’s an easy one. In 2009, I began writing travel articles for a local magazine. While talking to the public relations staff at the Key Biscayne Ritz-Carlton in 2013, they asked me if I’d be interested in playing in a private event with some of the pro players from the adjacent Miami Open. Uh, yes! (After the pros played an hour of hit-and-giggle tennis with some big money donors, a handful of reporters were allowed to play one point with the pros.) I played with Andy Murray against Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic. (I can recall Andy introducing himself so politely as if I didn’t know who he was.) During my one point, we got into a half-speed rat-a-tat rally at the net with Novak going down the middle for an apparent winner. I didn’t have time to get my racquet on it for a backhand volley, but I bought myself an extra split-second and volleyed the ball behind my back. It went just over his reach. He ran toward the baseline but couldn’t get there in time. I turned to Andy Murray who was already laughing incredulously and I said, “Did I just do that?” He said, “Good shot, mate!” Novak ran up to the net to shake hands and I said, “Sorry about that” (they were going easy on me and I pulled out that shot) but he shook his head once and said, “No, good shot.” He couldn’t have been nier. (Luckily I brought a video camera and asked the next reporter in line to press record. Otherwise who would believe me? That video is now nearing 50,000 views on YouTube under Ray Collins + Trick Shot.) I jokingly tell my wife, Erin, to be sure to put that video on my tombstone on an endless loop. I think she says under her breath, “Can’t wait.”

Another fun moment was in 2001 when I was anchoring the news in Richmond, Virginia, and Jim Courier came to town to play in an exhibition. Before the match, he and I hit for 10-15 minutes. It was so weird–he obviously hit so beautifully and I forgot for those few minutes how relatively bad I was. It was the best I ever played. It probably helped that he laid every ball right into my strike zone.

But my first big brush with fame–and perhaps the first time my love of broadcasting and tennis came together on the court was in 1993: I was anchoring the news in Southwest Florida and I saw a tennis show on what was called the Prime Network called “Tennis TV.” It was a weekly half-hour feature show about tennis. I loved it. I called the producers in New York and asked them if I could try to submit a story for their program. They said if it was good enough they’d air it and pay me a few hundred bucks. I had heard former two-time Australian Open winner Johan Kriek lived in Naples, so I called him and asked if he’d be willing to hit with me while I shouted questions across the court. He couldn’t have been more accommodating, the piece came out well and it led to a dozen more interesting stories and assignments. They sent me to the junior tennis championships (“The Easter Bowl”) at Doral Country Club where I was paid per story. I saw a couple well-dressed twins with their parents that looked like they’d have something to say. I interviewed them and their parents. Who would have known those kids would go on to be the best doubles team in tennis history, Bob and Mike Bryan. (They came to Sarasota in 2012 for an exhibition and I told them about our interview nearly 20 years earlier. They said they remembered because it was by far their first interview ever! Like with Arias, it was surreal to watch their career arc.)

Most painful tennis moment: I hate to even tell the story and have to relive this moment but there’s a lesson here. My mixed doubles partner and I were up quadruple tournament point 15 years ago in a charity event at the Bath & Racquet Club in Sarasota and forgot to keep playing aggressively. I figured the opponents would be so nervous they’d invariably miss. Instead they played like they had nothing to lose while we clenched up and lost the game, the set, the match and the tournament. Important lesson: Don’t change your strategy when you’re winning or “don’t forget to dance with who ‘brung ya.'”

Another very different type of painful moment was in 2014 when I hurt my back playing tennis and wound up having back surgery. The first doctor said it was just back spasms–but it was actually a herniated disc. I haven’t played the same since. More cautious with my movements.

Favorite players to watch: Bjorn Born was my first tennis idol. He looked and acted so cool, and his strokes were smooth. My second favorite was Andre Agassi. I was initially intrigued by his audacity–and then impressed by his maturity on the way out. We watched him mature in the spotlight, leaving the game as a real ambassador for the sport. I think he is one of the most interesting athletes of our time. I was covering the Miami Open back in 1994 for Tennis TV and during a press conference another reporter asked Andre how difficult it would be to be a top player again after his wrist injury. Without pausing he said, “It will be as difficult as it’s important to me.” I thought that was thought-provoking–especially coming from a 23-year old. I also met Borg–after a seniors match in Naples in the late 1990s, but he wasn’t quite as profound.

Funniest players: Mansour Bahrami was the funniest and most clever player I’ve ever seen and maybe in tennis history. I saw him play in an exhibition in Richmond around 2002. We’ll never know how good he could have become if his Iranian government hadn’t banned tennis after the Islamic revolution. He never had a chance to compete during his prime.

As the ‘voice’ of the Sarasota Open since 2012, I saw a lot of interesting personalities–but one player, Ilija Bozoljac of Serbia was probably the most fun. He’d come in our staff office and keep us laughing. Frances Tiafoe was also very engaging when he played in the tournament for three years (2015-2017). I really was disappointed in his actions–and subsequent fine–last month in China when he lit into an umpire. That wasn’t the kid I knew.

Embarrassing tennis memory: Being on the mic at the Sarasota Open nearly 12 hours a day for 9 straight days, invariably I have my share of bloopers. Maybe more than my share. I recall an oversight I had in one of the first tournaments during the doubles awards ceremony on Longboat Key. After awarding the runners-up their checks and trophies, I said, “Okay folks–now stand-by for the singles final!” The person next to me gestured to the sidelines where the doubles winners were still waiting to be brought out for their checks and trophies. Whoops!

Another embarrassing tennis memory as a player was back during high school, when the girl I was dating and I were the one of the top seeds in a mixed doubles tournament. Since I was working a couple summer jobs, my schedule wasn’t overly flexible. Before walking out on the court for our first match, I boldly looked ahead in the draw and asked the opponents we would potentially play next if they could play a little later the next day due to my work schedule. Naturally we lost our first match and it was a moot point. Served me right. Hash tag “counting chickens.”

Strangest match: I played in a men’s league at Bath & Racquet 15-20 years ago where every week we played one set with each of the three guys on the court and kept track of our games. (If you win a lot of games, you gravitate toward the top courts, conversely if you lose a lot of games you wind up down on court 8 or so.) I got lucky that session and was in first place going into the final night. But the person who was bound to come in no. 2 did the math and realized–once I won the first set and was leading the second–that the only way he could still win the entire session was to try to knock me out with an injury! Every overhead and forehand came at me hard. It was surreal. Fortunately he wasn’t successful, but I’ll never forget it.

Why do you love tennis: Tennis has done so much for me. I like the sights, the sounds, the people–everything. Sport of a lifetime. As a radio–and then TV newscaster–I moved around the country several times (New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Florida), but as long as I had a racquet and a can of balls I was able to find the closest tennis club and have a built-in circle of friends.

It’s also been a thrill to be an honorary umpire up in the chair and emcee exhibitions. Arias, Mikael Pernfors, the Jensen brothers, Aaron Krickstein, and many others. I only had one unpleasant player who was fresh off the pro tour and was taking the charity exhibition a little more seriously than everyone else.

I even met my wife through tennis. Back in 2013, I walked into United Tennis Club in Bradenton to hit with the pro, Hugo Armando Jr., and wound up hitting on the cutie in the pro shop. She and I still play a couple mornings a week–when we’re not playing pickleball.

Last tennis book read: Agassi’s book “Open” or Nick Bolletteri’s book “My Aces, My Faults.” In fact I remember reading Nick’s book while on vacation at the Dorado Beach resort in Puerto Rico–and was surprised to turn the page and find out he had actually begun his career teaching tennis at that same resort decades earlier! I had a chance to get to know Nick over the years. I was emcee for a number of events in which he was the keynote speaker. He was a fascinating guy–and I particularly liked your book about him “Nick Bollettieri: The Godfather Of Modern Tennis.” I loved reading the unfiltered comments about him from such a wide range of people.

Favorite tournaments: I used to like going to the Miami Open when it was held at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. I haven’t gone over to watch it yet at the football stadium. I wouldn’t think it has the same charm. I do like watching the practice courts as much as the matches.

I may be biased but I also love the Sarasota Open. As the on-court announcer, it’s been a thrill to watch some anonymous teenagers become household names. Tiafoe, Alexander Zverev, Nick Kyrgios, Kei Nishikori, etc. We see players on the way up–and others on the way down. I also get to announce the women’s pro tournament in Naples each year (Bonita Bay Club), and I’ve seen some players go on to big things from there as well.