Sports broadcaster Harry Cicma announced his first Davis Cup matches in Zhuhai, China for Tennis Channel and international feeds. The former ATP ranked player who competed for Division 1 Rutgers University discussed the unique experience…
Scoop Malinowski: What were some of the highlights from your Davis Cup broadcasting debut in China?
Harry Cicma: Davis Cup was amazing. Such an honor to be a part of. Very special to be back in the booth at that level. It was awesome, great event, great people, the supporters, organization, volunteers, players, staff, organizers, production staff. The quality of the production was amazing. Nice to see old friends and colleagues. All thumbs up, it was pretty special.
Scoop: You earned positive reviews of your work during matches on Tennis Channel, Richard Pagliaro of www.tennisnow.com praised your spontaneity, wit, insights, observations like Austin Krajicek’s lefty serve is unreturnable when it’s on. He told me, “This guy is a legitimate announcer, very sharp observations, not afraid to make statements. Hopefully we see a lot more of Cicma on Tennis Channel – the guy knows the sport no question about it.” Did anything surprise you about tennis in China?
Harry Cicma: That’s the beauty of tennis, you could be anywhere and it all comes down to the court. Tennis unites people together but Davis Cup is a great event.
Scoop: Which players impressed you the most seeing them perform live?
Harry Cicma: I thought Brandon Nakashima played great. He’s really consistent, he has a big serve. Ranked 40 in the world now. Jozef Kovalik picked up one of the gutsiest wins I’ve ever seen in my life over Alejandro Tabilo. He has lost eight matches in a row and was not playing well and he was injured towards the end of the match. And he hit I think five winners in a row to win the match. He was on one foot and just going for winners. It was really heroic tennis. Reilly Opelka played great. For Opelka to win those matches was amazing. There was a guy Matias Soto from Chile who was playing great doubles. Yannick Hanfmann picked up big wins. They all played well but ultimately Team USA going undefeated was amazing.
Scoop: Any differences in American and Chinese tennis fans?
Harry Cicma: The Chinese fans were very polite, very nice, warm-hearted people and loving and they really appreciate world class tennis a lot. They’re really nice people.
Scoop: Any surprises from the experience?
Harry Cicma: I’ve been around pro tennis my whole life. I thought China was an amazing experience. The city of Zhuhai was unbelievable, the buildings were as big as Miami and there were a lot more buildings and they were huge and florescent. 50 Miami-sized skyscrapers. But it’s three times the size of Miami. The streets were peaceful, clean but no one on the streets. So I thought it was surreal, sort of a Zen experience. And it was nice to do my marathon training (for Tokyo Marathon later this year) there along the bay. They ran the tournament well, they treated me nicely, it was one of the more enjoyable experiences of my TV and tennis career.
Brandon Nakashima · Davis Cup · Harry Cicma · Reilly Opelka · Rutgers
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