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 Triple thrill Women's tennis has competition, glamour and personality
Posted: Tuesday June 08, 1999 06:49 PM
PARIS (CNN/SI) -- We invite you to enter the intriguing and dramatic world of "Rackets" -- an enticing weekly offering from the producers of women's tennis. With "Dallas" and "Dynasty" long gone, we can now delve into another soap opera of sorts -- where characters are enjoying the days of their lives. "It's really something that everyone ... should watch," says Serena Williams. The cast members are glamorous and rich, powerful and dynamic, smart and successful, crafty and classy. Some have a style all their own. Others are rarely out of the headlines, and they have the women's game in an episode of unparalleled success. "I think women's tennis is at a very exciting point," says Monica Seles. "I really can never remember when it was at this point. So many players have a chance to win -- not just tournaments, but Grand Slam tournaments. There's a variety of personalities, games, styles, nationalities and that's why women's tennis is so popular right now." It's all enough to attract improved ratings on a regular basis -- not as in the days of old when we felt we had to wait to tune in for the cliff-hanger final episodes between the leading actresses. The teen queens have certainly helped, mixing on-court substance with off-court spice.
The key is achieving a suitable balance between the two scripts. "I think it's great for us to be in the press, even if it's the other way," says Martina Hingis. "Glamour girls or spice girls, it's always good." "It's something different and that's what everyone's looking for," adds Serena Williams. "Publicity in general is usually good, but I think what you always have to look at is that things focus on tennis," says Steffi Graf. "That should be the main issue and if players do things off court and people are interested in it, I think that is one thing, but it should always come back to the main thing -- and that is always tennis." Occasionally, though, the tennis has been overshadowed by the behind-the-scenes drama, like the Lindsay Davenport/Amelie Mauresmo/Hingis controversy at the Australian Open, or the rumored romance between Anna Kournikova and NHL player Sergei Fedorov. There have even been moments of must-see TV on the court that had nothing to do with playing the game, like the Venus Williams and Irina Spirlea bumping incident during a changeover at the 1997 U.S. Open.
"Obviously when you get together with that many people there are always going to be a little bit of differences," says Seles. "But from my point I haven't really seen that bit. Maybe I'm just more ... I don't know -- look at everybody's good side. Maybe that's my fault." But amid the intrigue, there's certainly no shortage of actual tennis action to captivate the audience, and there's less of a rush to switch channels for the men's game, which once dominated tennis' peak-time viewing. "You could hear some of the men saying some stuff about women's tennis. You can't really hear those things anymore," says Graf. "Everyone is working so much harder and trying to get better, so I think it's very exciting for women's tennis." "For the spectators it's even better," adds Hingis. "Everyone has a different style of game; it's very interesting." "Hopefully we realize what an opportunity this is," says Seles. "We have a great chance to give back to future generations of tennis who are right now 8 or 9 years old and watching us play on TV." Like any good soap opera, the trick for the women's tour is to keep the plot lines juicy, and ensure we can't wait to tune in next week.
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