French Open: Roles of Tennis Papas
Pinaki Mazumder
-----------------------------------------------------
As the dawn cracks in and morning sun shines on the placid
Stade Roland Garros, many tennis lovers across the world,
who were delighted to witness a silver lining on the
murky firmament of the women's tennis on the 2nd June,
will eagerly wait to see whether Mary Caroline Pierce will
emerge as a new Grand Slam queen on the Red Clay of Paris
which heralded the advents of so many new stars in the past.
No single victory in a semifinal match has gladdened so many
people and never was a single win so heartily cheered
by so many tennis fans around the world. Mary Pierce, with her
dauntless attitude and incredible hitting power, has
invigorated the sagging morale of women's tennis and will
hopefully instill courage and strength to many capable
young players who came in the past very close to beating
Steffi or Monica, but pitifully choked and succumbed under
pressure.
Her triumph, smile and confidence have also vindicated that
"tennis papas", like Peter, Stefano, Jimmy, Karojl, ... should move
out from their daughters' career after certain time and
should allow them to blossom on their own. There was a time,
when Tennis was not a big milking cow. So tennis fathers played
very rarely a dominating role once their daughters turned pro
and were on the road. I know very little of the fathers of
Margaret Smith, Billie Jean King, Maragaret Navratilova and
Chris Evert and I do not think any of them left their
individual profession to manage the career of their
daughters. But as big money started pouring in, we saw the
emergence of new tennis papas who coached their daughters,
managed their tours and endorsements, invested their winnings,
kept hungry wolves all around at bay, and, alas, often in their
zeal to drive their daughters to pulverize their opponents
and bring more big bucks, took the fun of the game away from
them, literally abused them, inadvertently imperiled their career,
and made them suffer in physical pain and mental anguish.
1. We saw Peter Graf, a used car salesman, who taught Steffi how
to play tennis in his living room, inflicted a lot of pain and
agony on her, albeit inadvertently, when his lone clandestine
affair was leaked out in the tabloid press. He had the right
sense to move out from Steffi's tennis life when it was
clear that she was striving and failing to win because of
the distractions caused by his presence during her tennis
matches.
2. We saw money-seeking Stefano Capriati, a real-estate agent,
who left his profession and relocated himself when he sensed
that his little gal has the gift to crush tennis balls. I
suspect very strongly that Stefano's unabated zeal for
making hays when the sun shines had a tremendous negative
influence on Jennifer's tennis career, finally forcing her to
hang her boot in protest and despair and turn to drugs in total
disenchantment.
3. Mary was unfortunate to be begotten by a father who is now
universally known to be straight from Hell. Unless the
good sense had prevailed upon the WTA to ban Jimmy Pierce from
the last year's French Open and later on from all tennis events
where his daughter plays, Mary would not have been able to
resurrect and reassert herself so strongly as we are witnessing
her in this year's French Open tournament.
4. Then was this gentle Hungarian, Karojl Seles, more seems to me an
ordinary peasant, who groomed Monica under his tutelage and made
her the awesome Champion who we saw so many times in the past. It
was the bright era of women's tennis when the battle between
Steffi, a deposed Golden Slammer queen, and Monica, who ripped
her like a blood-thirsty gladiator of the ancient Rome,
took the women's tennis to a different dizzying height
never scaled before - a brilliant combination of power,
speed and precision. Then the bright azure sky suddenly darkened
on that fateful April afternoon in Hamburg when Monica was
incapacitated by a lunatic fan with a piercing knife. Even though
many of us hoped in vain that Monica would return very
soon, but she did not. Many conjectures float around: That
she did not overcome the mental wound, even though the
physical wound had healed long time back. That she was
dismayed to find out that the WTA had stripped off her
ranking. That she was upset that the media literally had
given many misgivings about her past conducts and also
about her gruntings. That she was shocked that the court had
set her attacker scot free. That her fellow players hardly
came forward and denounced this attack. But, I strongly feel
that the single most reason that she cannot start playing
now is That her father, who mentored her tenderly, toured
with her everywhere she played, planned with her about her
game plans, is now terminally ill and cannot escort her anymore
and perhaps cannot coach her with the enthusiasm
and vigor he displayed in the past. Now Monica, good or bad,
has to accept that she is a Tennis Icon and she must forsake the
emotions for her father and get on with her career by herself,
and I am pretty sure that she will retrieve her #1 ranking.
So, tennis papas, who startled us lately by bringing forth a
bevy of young prodigies who are hitting tennis balls with
incredible spin and pace, must know when their time is up
and gracefully move out from their daughters' tennis life.
Good or bad, their presence, as we have witnessed in the
above four cases, finally will stifle the growth of their
kids' career. Let their gifted progenies be the delights
of fans and spectators of the game and let the elated papas
glow in pride staying at the background.
============================================================
Pinaki Mazumder
ma...@eecs.umich.edu
Associate Professor
Room No.: EECS 2215
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2122
313-763-2107 (phone); 313-763-1503 (fax)
==============================================================
Wendy Grossman
her to play and managed her investments for many years.
wg
John Oliveira
(ma...@indus.eecs.umich.edu) Pinaki Mazumder writes:
> 1994 French Open: Musings on the Roles of Tennis Papas
> -----------------------------------------------------
> will eagerly wait to see whether Mary Caroline Pierce will
> emerge as a new Grand Slam queen on the Red Clay of Paris
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
winning the French Open does NOT make someone "a new Grand Slam
queen." Even if you qualify it with "on the Red Clay of Paris,"
it is STILL wrong.
[personal thoughts and points of view on female players and
their fathers deleted]
> So, tennis papas, who startled us lately by bringing forth a
> bevy of young prodigies who are hitting tennis balls with
> incredible spin and pace, must know when their time is up
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> and gracefully move out from their daughters' tennis life.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Good thought... but *who* should be the judge and tell them
that it is time to leave them alone? I actually prefer that
their fathers stay a while longer than leave them to fend for
themselves too soon. However, that decision should belong solely
to their parents because, more often than not, they care about
their daughters more than do agents, promoters etc.
I find most of the secondhand observations you've written about
trite. And I don't believe most of it. I would say that Peter
Graf and Karojl Seles were very good influences on their daughters'
tennis careers. Peter did screw up once, but no one's perfect.
Pierce's dad is a different story, but Capriati's dad isn't the
monster that he's sometimes painted to be. What's truly sad is that
tennis father's, like Stefano, are deemed by most to be good or bad,
depending on their daughter's success.
Most of your ramblings are either ill-conceived or premature.
As far as Mary Pierce goes, one good year does not make career,
nor one good tournament make a good year. If you're going to make
a point, try backing it up. If you don't have the facts then don't
comment. Personally, I think that you've been thoroughly brainwashed
by the media.
j
--
un...@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (John Oliveira)