Our Media Confrontations With Players

@Scoop. One of the more fascinating insights into pro level tennis. I’ve met them all as well, as a fan. Here are some memories: at our hometown tourney in d.c. you can arrive at Rock Creek hours earlier than the match times and run into your fave players. I literally shared a half-hour of alone time sharing a lunch with the Bryan brothers – so down to earth! Brad brought a 16 year old Andy Murray to hit with Todd Martin, that year’s US Open finalist. Brad, always approachable and considerate. Kyrgios, who takes a lot of bullets here, withdrew from DC two years ago right before the first round. Having spare time, he went over to our club, JTTC, and hit with the summer campers all afternoon! Three years ago I was in the US Open suites with Blake & Courier – make the convo interesting and throw in personal nuggets and these two classy lads will engage you indefinitely with their wit & wisdom. Roddick? Always a dick, will forever be a dick, never have seen an athlete with so much contempt for fans. Coddled since birth.

(continued) Cilic, Anderson, Isner, Felix AA – all fan friendly will pose for selfies and sign autographs, if that’s your thing. It’s not mine. Tennis Sandgren, the most honest athlete I’ve ever encountered. Very direct, very truthful, well read and educated, will answer any question. Tiafoe, as generous and kind in real life as he comes off in interviews & ads. Universally loved by fans and media. Marius Copil, as genuine as any player on the tour. Win or lose, a sunny disposition. Has a real thirst for exploring all the cities he plays in. Generally speaking, the smaller the tournament, the more access you will have to your fav player.

I will post this here because the old thread is very long.

Kiki Bertens married Dutch tennis coach Remko de Rijke on Nov. 30. She posted a lovely photo on IG. Julia Goerges was a guest.

It’s getting so that tennis player weddings are as common as coaching changes!

Interesting post, Scoop. Roddick was/is (?) definitely difficult to deal with, but I liked that he engaged the interviewer often, but maybe that the side of him that always wanted to prove that he was smarter than reporters and objected to the line of questioning.

I remember Yannick Noah being one of the nicest guys I’d ever interviewed. Agassi, definitely a jerk and didn’t give a damn, especially early in his career, about the job the reporter is trying to do which eventually helps Agassi with his public fame or profile. I remember in that New York Magazine article I wrote on Agassi that it was killed (and as a reporter when a story is killed, instead of getting the contracted fee for the article, you receive 1/4 the contracted amount), when Agassi’s brother, Phillip, said Agassi wouldn’t sit for an interview with me unless the editor guaranteed it would be a cover story.

I have to admit, Spadea, was excellent with me, even before I wrote the book with him. He didn’t have a huge ego, maybe his ranking had something to do with this, but I was so used to tennis players being poor interviews, Sampras, Agassi, Chang, Courier, at least with me, that when I interviewed Spadea I found him to be funny and engaging.

Todd Martin was one of my favorites along with–I have to admit_Gimelstob, who even as a player, had a good rapport with media folk.

Scoop – At this distance I can’t remember precisely but it was something technical to do with the match. I’m not sure Martina was being personal – earlier that week I’d asked her something about her new hairstyle which she answered amiably. Probably she just was fed up with questions.

Agassi was a pain when he was young – he used to come in surrounded by his entourage and be quite obnoxious if he didn’t like the question.

Pam Shriver could also be pretty unfriendly – particularly if she lost.

Scoop – This was 1987 and Martina appeared with a spiky punkish kind of haircut which occasioned much comment. She beat Sabatini and came into the press room and I asked her if she’d had it done on impulse and she said ‘No, I’d thought of it in the spring and put it off for different reasons. Then yesterday it rained so I took the chance and had it done’. There is a Czech name for her style, which she discussed. Then she said ‘I’m not Samson’ and giggled a bit and finished with ‘I’ll be surprised if I don’t win.’ Of course she did win but the hair didn’t last.

(I haven’t remembered all that – I wrote about it and looked it up)

Saw Pioline make Courier cry, 1993 USO..players used to leave court under that tunnel in Armstrong. Courier was crying leaving Armstrong

Scoop, Pioline is media now, next time you see him, ask him if he’d appreciate being talked to the way he talked to you

Funny you mention Pam Shriver. I met her in the press room or outside of it in Miami this year and yes she was stuffy, not friendly. Had a certain air about her that was not pleasant. That was also the case with Rennae Stubbs. I remember asking her something tennis-related and she kind of gave me a look like, “Don’t bother me.” Which surprised me because on air she seems to be nice and not so high-almighty.

I realize you meet people at different times and it’s hard to always be friendly and open, but sometimes just a pleasant comment can justify being short with someone, especially a fellow press member. But the press, especially in sports, can be very rude to one another. I know we’re all going for a story and some reporters are on deadline–not usually the case with tennis–but I remember once being in the Washington Wizards’ locker room when Jordan was playing for the Wizards, and Rachel Nichols, who’s now a big deal ESPN tv personality, who was working for the Washington Post at the time, just jumped ahead of me in the questioning line to ask a question. Pissed me off.

Agassi was definitely one of the bigger pricks, as you so term it, Harold. He still is or was as of a few years ago where in that exbo match with Sampras he showed Pete up with Nadal and Fed.

Rios, what a jerk, I’ll never forget Cincy ’95 when I’m doing the article on Agassi, I asked Rios for his opinion on Agassi and he said something to the effect, “If you don’t ask me about myself I’ve got nothing to say.” What a creep and egomaniac.

We could substitute “people” for players in the above post. Players are no different than everyone else, some rarely nice, some usually nice, some have good days, bad days, some very shy and come across as stuck up instead, others simply stuck up.

A simple trip to the local grocery store usually reveals the entire spectrum of human behavior at about the same ratio we see in tennis players.

One of the nicest players around, Carla SN, will retire at the end of 2020 and it’s goodbye to that lovely onehanded backhand. Carla is 31 and says she is growing tired of the tour grind and wants to spend more time at home.

CSN won’t be alone is closing the door next year.

Yastremska IGs herself training with her new coach Bajin, along with a lusciously posed shot which suggests her attention isn’t entirely on the tennis court. I don’t predict a soar in the rankings for pouty Dayana.

I wonder why I’ve gone off the whole idea of Sascha in a really big way.

Catherine, I agree with you about Sascha. I had some sympathy for him when he was trying to make the transition from hitting partner to actual coach, and then he had that successful partnership (at least in terms of results) with Naomi. But things he has done and said since then, including leaving Kiki when she was making progress, have made me not so keen.

Interesting how the women on the ATP tour just gravitated to Novak, so many to name like Sharapova, Petkovic, etc. I think he has an odd face but his personality draws them in, it seems.

Catherine is right that the WTA site should be all gossip with Instagram pics of the week. Fanny Stollar posts a hot pic every day it seems.

The fact that Stepanek was a lady killer shows how unimportant looks can be.

I have to admit, though, as a fan it doesn’t hurt to have a few good-looking players on the ATP, and Novak is not in that group.

I just noticed this on Little’s IG where she announced their engagement, “#SockFoundHisMatch”

Probably just the beginning of a lot of puns. 🙂

Ha, yeah Stepanek has one bad looking mug. But he must have a wonderful personality!

Well, since my eyes are the same colour as Novak’s I will agree with you about his eyes. 🙂

But he has such a narrow face, and everything about his face is kind of thin and narrow. Fortunately, the top players aren’t judged on their looks.

What we think of as attractive is subjective, but among current players, I think Khachanov is good-looking. especially when he smiles. I have seen him in person and if anything, he is even better looking in person than on TV.