Game set and match to the tennis media stars
Photo AELTC/Florian Eisele
This year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament has been heralded as one of the most exciting in years with a 20 year old Spaniard,, Carlos Alcaraz, toppling the consecutive four times previous men’s winner Novak Djokovic. In the women’s singles, Markéeta Vondrousova pulled off a shock by becoming the first unseeded woman to win her singles final at the All England Lawn Tennis club.
But it’s not only the players and coaches that should be congratulated on their inspiring performances. The media trainers, who lurk in the shadows, deserve a huge round of applause for the work in preparing their clients for the media spotlight, helping their stars give some of the best interviews in the world of sport and putting other sports stars in the shade.
After each Wimbledon match the winner only has a couple of minutes to catch their breath and prepare themselves for an interview in front of hundreds of spectators and sometimes a worldwide TV audience of millions. The questions are not provided in advance and the interview is crucial in gaining popularity among the watching audience.
Media performance is crucial for top flight tennis players because they have to play in front of a crowd which - if hostile - can have a material negative impact on their game. So it is in their interest to come across as gracious, win or lose. The sponsors will also always insist on a genial performance after the match.
The media coaches have taught their clients to stick to three simple messages. How they love playing at Wimbledon on grass; their opponent put up a great fight and was tough to beat (unless of course they failed to win a game); and how much they are looking forward to playing in the next round. .
There is never a criticism of weather delays, late night matches or dodgy line calls. They say it with a smile and sometimes with humour thrown in, giving eye contact to the interviewer as well as the crowd
After the finals both players have to stand in front of the microphone and provide their views on how the match had gone. Novak Djokovic had already shown his frustration of losing to Alcaraz, the new tennis wunderkid, by breaking his racket on a net post. But when the BBC’s Annabel Croft interviewed him at the end of the match normal service had resumed and he was back smiling and congratulating his opponent, belying his inner torture that, maybe, life on the circuit is going to get a whole lot harder.
Even the 16 year old Russian Mirra Andreeva delivered her interviews faultlessly showing more media skills than all the members of the Politburo combined.
As well as getting the crowd on your side there are huge commercial benefits of being a successful tennis player with worldwide popularity. Roger Federer, the doyen of tennis media interviews, and Serena Williams are still among the world’s 50 highest-paid athletes earning more than $45 million each year despite not having played competitive tennis for eight months.
It’s not surprising that the stars of the future are so polished with their media appearances when the potential earnings are so high.
Photo AELTC/Florian Eisele
