#049 A Tennis Master Gives a Masterclass in Sideswiping Interview Landmines
The US Open is upon us, perhaps the most commercialized and ego-driven event of perhaps the most commercialized and ego-driven sport, which is individual tennis. Why doubles teams don’t get anywhere near the attention of the individuals, I have no idea.
If you think about it, an overt showing of individual effort is a welcome change from all these “team sports” with a bunch of egomaniacs putting on a facade of “being all about the team”.
Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Michael Jordan are “all about the team.” Sorry, not buying it. These guys maybe found their teammates were necessary to achieve their status, but I’d bet if they had any say in the matter, they would have done it on their own.
Maybe that’s why individual tennis is so appealing. It’s one guy, or one gal gutting it out, relying only on their physicality, mental strength and force of will to win the match.
The spoils of victory are massive in this, and the individual doesn’t need to share it with anyone else. It’s to the point that the individual’s public image is just as important as their game on the court, probably more so. If you win over the affection of the fans and win tennis matches, you and your family will never want for anything again for generations.
These folks are playing two separate, and equally important games: their tennis matches, and the game of maintaining a positive public image.
Most tennis players choose to play it safe with their public image. They don’t want to rock the boat, in so doing put a bunch of unnecessary negative attention on themselves.
So when Covid-19 came around, along with the mandatory vaccines in order to simply get around in life, the vast majority of tennis players chose to simply get their shots, deal with the side effects, and get on with life. A few virtue-signaled about it, posting their vaccine cards on Instagram, but most did it quietly just to stay in compliance and make a living.
You can’t fault them for this. The only reason I got the jabs was so I could travel to Vietnam and live with my wife Sana, so I understand where they’re coming from.
But on the tennis arena, one person decided he had accomplished enough in the game that he could not get the vaccine and basically let his game talk on his behalf. It was risky, and it cost him dearly, both in money and in his public perception, but he stuck to his guns.
The person I’m referring to is of course Novak Djokovic. Novak has at times deliberately gone out of his way to be somewhat acrimonious in the public eye. For what reason we don’t know for sure, but he’s easily one of the most polarizing people in the history of tennis. You almost hate him for forcing yourself to acknowledge he’s better than Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, but you can’t deny he’s the best to ever play. Sorry, but he owned Roger in the 2010’s.
Likability doesn’t win match point, a la 2019 Wimbledon.
I say all this to give some backstory to what occurred Sunday evening after Novak’s victory over an unknown quantity in the tennis world. Everyone on the planet expected Novak to win fairly easily, including Novak himself, which he did in straight sets. However, the on-court interview after the match caught my attention. It seemed the interviewer was deliberately trying to get Novak to say something he would regret, and it made me wonder about what goes on behind the scenes in that world.