John Feinstein - Hard Courts: Real Life on the Professional Tennis Tours

A LSO BY J OHN F EINSTEIN

A Season on the Brink
A Season Inside
Forevers Team

Copyright 1991, 1992 by John Feinstein

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Villard Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Originally published in somewhat different form by Villard Books, a division of Random House, Inc., in 1991.

Villard Books is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Feinstein, John.
Hard courts / by John Feinstein.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-80096-1
1. TennisHistory. 2. TennisTournamentsHistory. I. Title. GV992.F45 1991
796.342dc20 91-50060

v3.1

This is for Bud Collins

who taught me how to love tennis as a kid and how to cover it as an adult.

And it is for Ted Tinling

who always had the answers and always made it fun.

A few months ago I read a magazine story on book acknowledgments. It was frighteningly accurate, full of anecdotes about authors who go to great lengths to thank virtually everyone they have ever met when they reach the end of a book. No one is more guilty of this than I am, but I cant help it. The fact is, I would never get any book written without considerable outside help.

Never has this been truer than during the past fifteen months. The two tennis tours consist of 142 major tournaments (78 mens, 64 womens) played across the world, with more than $63 million in prize money ($40 million for men, $23 million for women) available. Those dont even include the exhibitions, the one-nighters, the Satellite and Challenger (minor league) tournaments and the gone-berserk guarantees. Trying to make sense of just some of this morass and the people who live it was, at times, an overwhelming task. As a result, this has been, without question, the most difficult book I have ever done in terms of logistics, and the list of people I must thank is extremely long.

No endeavor like this one can get off the ground without sources. In delving into the tennis world I was often confronted by people who had no idea what the hell I was doing or what I meant when I said I was writing a book. One player kept saying to me, An hour isnt enough time [for an interview]? What in the world could take more than an hour?

Most of the people I interviewed gave me more than an hour, some of them considerably more than that. The list of those who were giving of their time is a lengthy one. It includes: Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Andres Gomez, Aaron Krickstein, Jay Berger, Goran Ivanisevic, Andrei Chesnokov, Alberto Mancini, Henri Leconte, Yannick Noah, Karel Novacek, Brad Pearce, Richey Reneberg, Jim Grabb, Rick Leach, Jim Pugh, Luke Jensen, Aki Rahunen, Pat Cash, Michael Chang, Mark Kratzmann, Bryan Shelton, Leif Shiras, Grant Connell, Paul Chamberlin, Derrick Rostagno, Paul Annacone, Tim Mayotte, Malivai Washington, Christo van Rensburg, Wayne Ferreira, Paul Haarhuis, Amos Mansdorf, Vijay Amritraj, and Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Arantxa Sanchez, Mary Joe Fernandez, Pam Shriver, Natalia Zvereva, Jennifer Capriati, Laura Gildemeister, Carrie Cunningham, Patty Fendick, Andrea Leand, Carling Bassett, Katrina Adams, Louise Allen, Stephanie Rehe, Amy Frazier, Kathy Rinaldi, Gretchen Magers, and Angelica Gavaldon.

It will be more than apparent that a number of players were patient enough to sit down with me on several occasions throughout the year, sometimes for sessions that became marathons. That list includes Zina Garrison, Monica Seles, Elise Burgin, Shaun Stafford, Boris Becker, John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, David Wheaton, Glenn Layendecker, and Jimmy and Gina Arias. I owe each of them an extra debt of gratitudeat the very least.

I would also like to thank for their time rookie TV commentators Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors, as well as a number of their television colleagues, including Arthur Ashe, Cliff Drysdale, Fred Stolle, Sara Harrison, David Stern, Brian Williams, and Peter Englehardt.

Clearly, a number of nonplayers were major players in this book and contributed time and information and guidance that was invaluable. People like the coaches: Bob Brett, Tom Gorman, Sergio Cruz, Joe Brandi, Bill Drake, Tom Gullikson, Craig Kardon, Tony Pickard, and Tony Roche. The agents: Ion Tiriac, Heather McLachlan, Stuart Wilson, John Evert, John Wheaton, Cino Marchese, Bob Kain, Gavin Forbes, Virginia Ruzici, Jerry Solomon, Ivan Blumberg, Dick Dell, Sara Fornaciari, Dewey Blanton, Peter Lawler, Micky den Tuinder, Tom Ross, Kelly Wolf, Jeff Austin, Slade Meade, Tom George, and Phil dePicciotto. The officials: Gerry Armstrong, Richard Ings, Richard Kaufman, Dana (Cheeseburger) Loconto, Gayle Bradshaw, Chris OBrien, Ken Farrar, and Steve Winyard. The tournament directors: Paul Flory, Butch Buchholz (and his able assistants Temple Pouncey and George Pharr), Barbara Perry, Marilyn and Ed Fernberger, Josh Ripple, Franco Bartoni (who got me medical help when I broke a bone in my foot in Rome), Gene Scott and Suzy Rothstein, Patrice Clerc, Steve DeVoe, and Bill Hoffman.

There were many others: at the ITF, Philippe Chatrier, Brian Tobin, Bill Babcock, Barbara Travers, and Camille Guthrie. At Wimbledon, John Curry, R.E.H. (Buzzer) Hadinghamwho I hope someday gets to see a Mets gameChristopher Gorringe, and Richard Berens. At the USTA, Marshall Happer, Ed Fabricus, Bruce Levy, Art Newcombe, Art Campbell, and Andy Deitel. At the ATP Tour, Hamilton Jordan, Mark Miles, Greg Sharko, Jay Beck, Benji Robins, Bill Norris, Todd Snyder, J. Wayne Richmond, Bob Green, George Rubenstein, Lauren Goldenberg, Craig (Mats) Gabriel, and Caroline Hutton. At the WTA, Gerry Smith, Giselle Marrou (the worlds most patient human being), Ana Leaird, Lee Jackson, and Robin Reynolds. At Virginia Slims and Kraft General Foods, Jim Fuhse, Lesley Allen, Suzette Betteridge, Bettina Petterson, Peter Land, Annalee Thurston, Janine Bell, Leo McCullagh, Ina Broeman, Anne Person, and last but far from least, Nancy Bolger-King, whose patience and persistence were my saviors on the womens tour.

I had a number of key advisers on this book, people whose knowledge of the tour I kept going back to: Bud Collinss, Mary Carillos and Ted Tinlings input will be obvious as you read the book; Peter Bodos will be less so, but his was just about as important. All four of them kept pointing me forward when I was about to fall backward. I miss Ted and I miss Mary Lou Collins every single day. Both of them defined the words courageous and caring.

Two others without whom I doubt I could have gotten anything finished are my indefatigable agent, Esther (Sally UConn) Newberg, and my editor at Villard, Peter Gethers. Their coworkersKathy Pohl and Britt Hansen at ICM, and Janis Donnaud, Stephanie Long, Janet Bolen, and Corinne Lewkowicz at Villardare almost as invaluable to me as they are to Esther and Peter. An extra thanks to Brad Snyder, who spent countless hours helping me wade through the tapes and notes that eventually became this book.

At The National, I have worked with terrific people, most notably my ever-patient boss, Frank Deford, who has given me more time and independence than any writer could possibly hope for. Others at the newspaper I have to thank are Pete Alfano, Rob Fleder, Steve Clow, Mike Bevans, Mark Godich, Lisa Dillman, Mike Lupica, and Ellen Thornley.