The Strangest Oddities in Tennis

Having been involved in and followed the world of tennis for approximately 30 years, I have always been fascinated by certain oddities that do not get much media space or time. Some of these are open for debate. In fact, I have my opinions on them also, but what is more peculiar is that although tennis reporters and so-called experts crave for new stories to write about, these interesting topics for debate are rarely picked up or even mentioned by these people. Let's get to a few of these question marks.

Why do WTA players refuse to practice with each other? Is it that women see each other as more bitter rivals than men? At tournaments, one often sees top men's players practice together, even picking up a practice set on the spot. With women, it's almost like taboo. They either practice with their coach or a sparring partner. Furthermore, an occasional hit with another player is a rare occurrence.

The Williams sisters even have a full-time Turkish male player that they met at Istanbul Cup in 2005 when, not surprisingly, they asked the tournament director to find Venus a hitting partner for the duration of the tournament, as if there were no other players present who would be interested in practicing with her. This guy is not ATP-level player by any means, but now he travels with them for the sole purpose of a sparring partner.

Why not a book on Roger Federer? I mean in English, of course (only one book has been published about him, in French by a Swiss author naturally). Are we this disconnected from non-American tennis players? Arguably the best player of all-time has yet a book to be published in his name in the U.S. Hey, don't say it has always been that way. Bjorn Borg, Ilie Nastase, Boris Becker, and others have had books published in their names and sometimes even before their careers were over.

Why aren't there more women as coaches? Is it because women hated it so much while they were doing it that once retired, they want to pull a Steffi Graf and never hang around a tennis-related environment (of course, in Graf's case, only to watch her husband play)? This is perhaps the most intriguing oddity of all. Couldn't Martina Navratilova, Pam Shriver, Steffi Graf, Jana Novotna, Nathalie Tauziat, Margaret Court, and Evonne Goolagong be very valuable to other women's players on the tour, just like Brad Gilbert, Peter Lundgren, and as of late, Jimmy Connors, have been to their players? Are they simply not interested in coaching?

Speaking of Margaret Court, why is she rarely included in the "best ever" discussion? I think most will agree that Steffi Graf was the best female player of all-time. What seems strange in this discussion is how at times Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Monica Seles, Serena Williams, or even Mo Connelly are compared to Graf whenever the best female player of all-time subject is brought to the table, yet Margaret Court, the winner of 24 Slam singles titles (more than Graf herself), a Grand Slam in 1970, and 19 Slam doubles titles is hardly ever mentioned. Maybe she should have beaten Bobby Riggs when they played four months prior to the "battle of the sexes" won by Billie Jean King.

Why no cry over equal prize money in lesser tournaments? In ATP tournaments, the lesser events outside of the Masters Series have at least $400K in prize money. In the WTA calendar, you will notice a bunch of tournaments hovering around $150K range. More precisely, why no public outcry about this inequality when there are all kinds of outcry about the Slams' prize money? Yes, we are all familiar with the Slams being run by the same governing body, but not the other tournaments' explanations. But still no visible fuss over this? I say go at it!

In the Slams, the five-set argument is sometimes offered. But here is a case, where everything is equal. Plus, these tournaments sell tickets only for women's matches, so no excuse of men's matches' attracting the crowd could be used, either. These WTA tournaments sell tickets just like their equivalent in ATP tournaments.

So there you go. This is a true calling for justified outcry for equal prize money where the other side could not offer much of a counter-argument. Yet, most characters who go head over heels to put up a big fuss over equal prize money in Slams are bizarrely absent when it comes to the outrageously unproportionate general distribution of prize money in lesser tournaments. Maybe these characters are also concerned with their visibility, as well?

Why won't juniors follow tennis on TV or other media? I have conducted junior clinics for the past 10 years. I will never forget few years ago when I asked all 16 students to name me the best golf player, they all screamed Tiger Woods' name. Immediately after, I asked for the best tennis player, male or female. They all looked blank. I asked them to name "any player." They still looked blank. Exasperated, I asked, "Have you not heard of Serena Williams?" Couple of the students replied "yes," then added "Is she still playing?" I mentioned Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Andy Roddick, all of them American. They continued the blank glance.

I realize that was an extreme case (or was it?), but junior tennis players do not watch tennis, do not know the history of the game, and I am willing to bet a lot that most juniors could not name 10 players' names in succession, men and women together. I remember my junior years in the late-'70s, early-'80s. We would follow every ATP and WTA tournament, watch every match shown on TV, even miss school clandestinely, so we could watch the Wimbledon quarterfinals live.

Why is this belief that acting like an idiot can help a certain player? John McEnroe is the emblematic subject for this debate. For years, we keep hearing that his behavior somehow helped him focus and concentrate better. We heard that if he controlled his emotions, he would not have been half the player that he was. I think it's all nonsense. Thankfully, McEnroe himself agrees, also. He has said on many occasions that his temperament has gotten the better of him in many instances.

Yet still, there are people who truly believe that McEnroe, Jeff Tarango, Marat Safin, etc. are simply "like that" and it somehow helps them excel in their strive for perfection. I guess we should say "bravo" to McEnroe for getting defaulted out of the Australian Open against Perfors because he could not keep his mouth shut, or offer congratulations to Marat Safin for breaking more than one racket in frustration and losing more than a few games before being able to recuperate himself several different times during the Australian Open final that he lost to Thomas Johansson (talk about an oddity there, Johansson winning a Slam).

Why does it seem that Clijsters and Fiona from Shrek are look-alikes? Josh Hartnett and Rafael Nadal? Steffi Graf and Laura Dern? Juan Carlos Ferrero and Sawyer from "Lost?"

And finally how about Roger Federer and the FedEx sign? Uh, okay, never mind...