2018 Mercedes Cup...ATP 250...Stuttgart, Germany

[stroke]

Hate to hear about that Kyrgios incident with your student. But that sort of behavior does not surprise me from him. It's nice to be important but its more important to be nice.
Back in the 90's I was a ballboy for a world team tennis playoff match. Anna Kournikova was there. I am not one to ask for autographs but a young fellow in the audience did, and Kournikova shot him and look, kept her nose up in the air and said "you're not worth it". Sad.


Kyle LaCroix USPTA Boca Raton

I was at the Sony, or Lipton, I think it was early 2000's, on the granstand court. Anna was the 2nd match up that day. It created a near riot for up close seating that day, I will never forget that. Anna did an on court interview that day. Some very young ball girl for some reason had a bit part in this and was asked by the person doing the interview who her favorite player was. She said very sweetly Anna Kournikova. Anna did not even glance over at her.

[don_budge]

I was at the Sony, or Lipton, I think it was early 2000's, on the granstand court. Anna was the 2nd match up that day. It created a near riot for up close seating that day, I will never forget that. Anna did an on court interview that day. Some very young ball girl for some reason had a bit part in this and was asked by the person doing the interview who her favorite player was. She said very sweetly Anna Kournikova. Anna did not even glance over at her.

Autographs and fan interaction is optional. Different people react differently to people being in their space. Swede's are horrified if someone gets too close whereas Italians are more comfortable. Not that it is a cultural trait in "famous" people.

Nick Kyrgios might react entirely differently if, for instance, Anna Kournikova were to come up to him dressed to kill asking for an autograph. I think it is pretty normal for a person to ask "what's in it for me?" in any given situation. The virtue of selfishness. Personally I take athletes to be only that. I can admire their skills but I don't necessarily have to feel any interaction with them. I might dream of having a conversation with Roger Federer for example but if I saw him in public I don't think I would try to engage him in conversation.

Come to think of it I am dying to ask him if he actually strengthened his backhand grip...but I'm pretty sure he did without asking.

Overall even the post match interviews are sort of non-events. Nothing or anything is rarely groundbreaking or remotely interesting. Even the curtain call at the end of modern tennis matches is overdone. Modern fame is an attempt to give the illusion of a familiarity with these personnas. I don't know...if I were one of them I think that I would be dying for a degree of separation. There are a lot of crazies out there...why deliberately let them too close to you?

I think I can relate to that Mickey Rourke character in "Barfly".

Wanda: I can't stand people, I hate them.

Henry: Oh yeah?

Wanda: Do you hate them?

Henry: No, but I seem to feel better when they're not around.

[gzhpcu]

I remember when Rod Laver, as an amateur, won his first Wimbledon, he got a Rolex watch. That is the other end of the spectrum. Then, somewhere along the line, with pro tennis, sports companies and tv channels came in. Business. Money. Tennis becomes popular, is no longer an elitist sport. But thats life. Today it is all about return on investment. Profit. In tennis the top players make lots of money. The lower ranked players barely make ends meet.

We get entertained, but remember life was never fair. I like the way Roger plays, but I do not care for the marketing fanfare, the media circus surrounding him.

The Roman emperors lived lavishly and appeased the masses with bread and games. Not much progress...