Citi Open Access

Great news:  I've just received press credentials to the Citi Open in Washington DC coming up the first week of August.  I'll be posting daily from the tournament, and hopefully will have a chance to have interviews with players and officials.  Feel free to send me any questions you have for anyone that will be there.

Here's the Citi Open site with the player list:

http://www.citiopentennis.com/

Here's my blog, from which I will be posting continually from the tournament as well:

http://tennis-column.blogspot.com

Looking forward to it!

Well done that man

Yes well done MMT1.

I'll look forward to reading that.

Will you know in advance who you will be interviewing? If you let us know, I'm sure there are questions we'd be interested in hearing answers to.

Good blog, by the way.

HM Murdoch wrote:I'll look forward to reading that.

Will you know in advance who you will be interviewing? If you let us know, I'm sure there are questions we'd be interested in hearing answers to.

Good blog, by the way.

As I understand it - the press credentials are a license to roam, but not a right to engage. We're supposed to make requests for interviews through the tour, so I don't (and probably won't) know ahead of time. I was hoping people could arm with with some interesting questions on the odd chance that I run into someone that people here want to know something about in particular.

Glad you like the blog.

Well done

Washington is a really nice tournament to watch as well, I do like the feel of it.

MMT1 wrote:As I understand it - the press credentials are a license to roam, but not a right to engage.  We're supposed to make requests for interviews through the tour, so I don't (and probably won't) know ahead of time.  I was hoping people could arm with with some interesting questions on the odd chance that I run into someone that people here want to know something about in particular.

As a general question, I'd be interested in hearing about life on tour, especially from some of the lower ranked players.

Things like do they ever make a loss on a tournament? i.e. fly to the other side of the world, paying air fares, accommodation, coach's fees etc and then get knocked out in the first round?

What proportion of prize money goes in their pocket once they've paid tax and covered all the many costs of competing internationally?

Do they ever get sick of airports and living out of a suitcase?

Can they have friendships with other players or does being in competition make that tough?

That sort of thing. The aspects of the life of a tennis pro that don't take place on the match court.

Ask about doping

That will be the first and last question he/she asks!

Hehe! "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem!" - Homer Simpson. 

Maybe end with it

To quote that man: "If I can't see it, it's not illegal"

How about "If you have to take a guess, which of the top players is most likely to be on PEDs or do you think they all are? And don't worry, I won't quote you. Much."

But seriously, you could ask something like what is the feeling in the locker room do players generally believe that a lot of pros dope, or is the talk that it's probably very few players do? Although even that I would only ask if you've already been chatting to someone for a while and it's going well, otherwise I would leave it out. And yeah leave to the end lol.

Omerta...

I was just having a look at your blogs, which made an interesting read, so was Washington tournament previously on clay, and now it's hard at the same venue? I assume you live in that part of the US then?

I think one of your blogs said he lost to Darcis in 12, then Rosol in 13, I think it was the other way around. Rosol was the out of the blue shock result, Darcis was due to an injury, Krygios was another shocker but not at the level of Rosol which as you mention came on the back of various successive finals.

I am not sure if Dustin Brown loss was such an outlier as you mentioned. Sure Rafa would have been favourite, but it's no longer to surprise to see Rafa lose in the early rounds of Wimbledon. I had thought of doing a joke article this year along the line of who will Rafa lose to this year. Someone on this forum actually predicted Rafa to lose to Dustin Brown after the draw came out (I forget who).

Totes moi;

Henman Bill wrote:I was just having a look at your blogs, which made an interesting read, so was Washington tournament previously on clay, and now it's hard at the same venue? I assume you live in that part of the US then?

Yes, the DC tournament was a clay tournament since its inception in 1969, but switched over to hard courts in 1987, where Ivan Lendl obliterated Brad Gilbert in the final. Gilbert had beaten Boris Becker in the SF, by a score of 6-0 in the 3rd, if you can believe that. In fact, Gilbert beat Becker at the US Open and the Masters that year, and won 4 of their first 5 meetings. To be fair, 1987 was not Becker's best year, and Gilbert was at the top of his game. In the end, Becker would go on to win their last 5 meetings...but I digress.

1987 was also the year of a massive renovation of the tennis center, where it became one of the most modern and beautiful facilities in the world, and is on of the reasons why Lendl returned to the event after winning it the last time he played there in 1983 (when it was still on clay). In those days Lendl was the iron man of the tour and would play almost anywhere, but as of 1984, winning Roland Garros, he stopped coming until the facilities improved.

Hey mmt1, did you get my pm?

interesting asides, thanks!

Congrats, MMT1.