Here’s a new feature for our dear readers, it’s an inside story about a famous star player (of the present or past) who I will not reveal. This anecdote – episode one – involves a hot headed future superstar player who had a burning desire to be great and a perfectionist aspect as a junior that eventually evolved from beastly behavior into a positive, by giving the world years of beautiful, elegant tennis to appreciate and enjoy…
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He came with his mom and dad to our racket club in Fort Lauderdale to practice overheads.
He was no 3 or 4 in the boys 16 and under in the country at the time. No 1 and no 2 were (x) and (y), who also lived in (x) and played at my racquet club. He came the Club to hit with either (x) or (y) to warm him up for his match the following morning at the Orange Bowl tournament. We all had matches at the Orange Bowl and it was dinner time so (x and y) were not on the courts.
I was getting ready to leave as well, when the club pro asked if I would hit lobs to (star player) to practice his overhead…
I told my pro that I also had a match tomorrow so I didn’t want to stand at the baseline like a ball machine. That was no practice for me! My pro offered to personally hit with me for an hour that week, free of charge if I did him that favor. He was also about to give a lesson and there was no one half-way decent around to pitch in. I met (star player) on center court. His parents sat in the bleachers. There was a slight breeze that was taking my lobs away from (star player)’s “sweet spot” and let’s just say, he was not happy. In fact, he wall yelling “F***” and “S***” whenever he would miss. After ten minutes of this I was feeling very uncomfortable. I looked up in the bleachers to see if his parents were looking embarrassed or intended to reprimand him for conducting himself like this. Nope… It was bad enough that he was a guest at our club… I was a little girl. It was just weird! I wanted to walk off but I did not. He began to blame me for where the breeze was taking my lobs. I had never encountered anything like it! Then he called me a c*** and I began to cry. That’s when I walked off the court. His parents never apologized. Either did (star player).
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Scoop Malinowski · September 26, 2016 at 9:43 am
And no I will not reveal this player – sworn to secrecy 🙂
catherine bell · September 26, 2016 at 10:34 am
If you’re not going to reveal the player, ever, then what’s the point ? There should be a prize at the end somewhere 🙂
Scoop malinowski · September 26, 2016 at 11:23 am
Catherine, there are enough clues that I’m certain at least one of our many astute readers will deduct the secret player. And I will neither confirm or deny. 🙂
catherine bell · September 26, 2016 at 12:48 pm
Were you really a little girl ?
Dan Markowitz · September 26, 2016 at 1:55 pm
And…who cares? Wild revelation, top junior players can be absolute assholes? And their parents can be uncaring clods! Stunning, right?
I’ll tell you a junior story and I’ll reveal the names of the parents and said junior because the father was me and my son is the junior. We, actually I’ve been advised not to say “we” now when I talk about my son’s junior tennis life because I shouldn’t think or project that I’m a part of it (even though, of course, I am), were invited by another father, a former low-level pro player, but a decent doubles player on tour with Geoff Grant, to go take lessons with this dad’s son, who’s the same age as my son. This boy is talented, but he’s never taken a set off of Callum in two tournament matches and Callum is the better player.
So I said ok, because why not? These lessons are bloody expensive and I tried to get Callum a scholarship last week at the McEnroe Academy in Westchester County, NY and Fritz Buehnig, former no. 21 player in the world, said Cal had a lot of talent, he loved his competitiveness, but he had given up all his scholarship $. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know, but Fritz said I should try to get him in top 30 in East by when he turns 11 next year (in the 12’s) so he can play Sectionals and possibly top 15 so he can play the Nationals. (Only problem is now the USTA in all their wisdom made a rule that 10 year old’s can’t play in 12’s events and with yellow balls unless they were no. 150 in region by Aug. 1. I never saw this new ruling so Cal was no. 183 on Aug. 1 because he doesn’t have time with baseball to play tennis tournaments in the summer. Since then he played three tournaments in August and is now no. 96 and beat the no. 34 player love and 2 in one of those events, but the USTA says he has to go back to playing orange ball, not even green ball, events. I’ve filed for an exemption to this stupid ruling. Why does the USTA get to decide what color ball your kid can play with in tournaments?)
Fritz also said to bring him back earlier in summer next year when they do have scholarship $ available. Anyway, my kid is hitting with this boy and a pro and it’s a good lesson. Callum has a bit of a reputation for being a hot head, but it’s not entirely deserved and I do set him off sometimes by getting too emotionally-involved and vocal. So the pro is asking me to comment on anything I want to add because he knows I have a coaching background, but I feel uncomfortable with this because he’s teaching the lesson and I wouldn’t give advice to the other boy and I think it’s complicated for Callum if he gets advice from both the coach and me.
They start playing games at the end of the lesson and Callum actually double-faults an entire game. I’m not happy about this because we’ve been working on his serve and he’s improved it, but what upsets me more is the pro goes up to him and Callum tells him he can’t get a first serve in. Now, of course, he can get a first serve in, but when he gets angry and he sees me getting upset, he loses confidence. Finally, I just yell out to him, “Get a first serve in for God’s sakes!” And then he double-faults twice in his next service game and the other boy is up like 3-1 on him when the lesson ends.
Callum comes off the court and I should’ve just walked back to the car with him, but my mother had called me telling me I have to meet her at the hospital because she fell again and hit and bloodied her face and eye, and I lost my composure completely. I yelled at Callum and he took one of his racquets and threw it like 50 yards onto another court. This caused a bit of a scene, but I took him out on the court and had him practice his serve more (we were the next day told Callum–and I–couldn’t come back to the club which I felt relief about because it was like we were the invited guests to a snooty club I didn’t really want to be at anyway. There was pressure on Callum put on him by me and just being at the boy’s club, to beat him and when Callum didn’t, we both kind of exploded).
It’s over. Hopefully, we both learned that we both have to step back in these situations and take a breath. This weekend, my wife and I took Callum to Aberdeen, Md. to play in the 10 U Ripken Tournament baseball championships and against the no. 1 seeded-team, Callum pitched a complete game, striking out 9 in six innings and hitting a two-run homer at 1-all in the 5th to pretty much single-handedly win the game for his team, Rockland Elite, who went onto win the title of the best 10 teams in NY, NJ, Pa, Del and Md.
Callum had no outbursts. He didn’t throw his bat and hit anyone pitching, but the other team’s fans the game he was pitching, were really loud and and annoying, parents included, so when Cal hit the homer and crossed home plate (inside the park job) he pumped his fist at their side of the stands and these parents and the coaches of that team went wild. I didn’t see it. I’d run up on the top of the dug out on our side (like Richard Williams at Wimbledon that one year), and was woofing at Callum, pumping my fist at him and yelling, “Yeah, yeah Callum!”
Baseball victories can be a lot more fun than tennis. You’ve got other kids to celebrate with and it’s not like in junior tennis where you basically just put your racquets in your bag and walk off to your parents or a coach who’ve been asked not to get involved.
Scoop Malinowski · September 26, 2016 at 5:53 pm
Whoa that’s a heckuva story Dan -Cal is a star baseball player – which sport does he prefer to play for the fun factor? Playing both probably helps his skills for both sports – Tennis is really hard right now – everyone wants his son to be the next Fed or Nadal or Djokovic – and a lot of parents spend the $ to try to produce the player – It’s just too tough – like winning the lottery twice –
Dan Markowitz · September 26, 2016 at 8:18 pm
He has a special skill as a pitcher and the bigger the game, the better he pitches. He can throw hard, hence the 7 strike outs in first 3 innings. But he has I think more of a preternatural skill in tennis. Anyone who sees him hit his forehand says it’s the biggest forehand they’ve ever seen of a 10 year old. Kevin Anderson’s brother, Greg, says he’s a “signature player” and he’s never seen a 10 year old hit the ball as hard as Callum. Chris Mayotte said the same thing, the problem is his backhand, it doesn’t have the same racquet head speed as the forehand. Buehnig and Mayotte both say that could hold him back, but his backhand is the steadier shot.
He goes back and forth with what sport he prefers to play, but he hasn’t developed one friend his age who plays tennis–no one, not one kid in all of White Plains his age, plays the game seriously–so while there’s competition in the baseball junior ranks, it’s not the same as in tennis with both the kids and the parents. Also, from a $ standpoint, I pay like $2,000 a year for his baseball playing and instruction. For tennis, I probably pay $10,000 and I’m cheap in that regard.
Scoop Malinowski · September 26, 2016 at 10:32 pm
Dan he has to be patient with the backhand – it can suddenly blossom into a weapon – that’s really nice to hear that he is excelling at two sports already at such a young age – he’s gonna need that racquet and baseball bat to keep the girls away 🙂
Thomas Tung · September 27, 2016 at 8:32 pm
Scoop, you left plenty of clues, IMO 🙂
After I read the story, there was only one player who fit all of the possible descriptions.
There are two other possibilities, but they are pretty long shots.