Andre did something so many professional athletes never do. He grew up. He became a grown-up. It's been fun to watch, because we all saw him as the young guy, dripping with talent and earrings, and then through his slump and the love affairs. This is his 20th Open, and he is still the biggest draw without question. |
Hey, Maria wants it. She's starting to learn to move better and cut off angles and things like that. I'm a big believer in Maria. I think she's very hungry. |
His presence shows how much respect he has for her, and he's so deferential. |
I think the generational differences and that fact that I was a woman doing a lot of men's tennis matches with those two kind of worked. We all brought different points of view. We all pronounced the players' names a different way so it sounded like there were 14 people on the court when we were together. Fred would say it one way and Cliffy would correct Fred and I'd correct Cliff. I think we did produce a nice sound. There was genuine warmth there. It was just a wonderful time. |
If Andre is still around the second week, what a great thing that will be to watch. |
It's no fun watching her play at this level, is it? |
She could have gone away. |
She had to give it up. All we asked her for was everything. |
That says a lot. They could've chosen Arthur Ashe or a lot of other people. But they chose her. And that's not a sports magazine. |
That was something to me. There were times when I was crying, and she'd come around to me and say, 'Are you all right, Mary?' I was broken up. |
The rivalry of Chrissie and Martina (Navratilova). I have told them I'll work for free. |
There's somebody to look at, and I think that really helped. |
They're back -- kind of. They do more with less match play than anyone I can think of. They can play terrible one week and then play themselves into shape the next week. They both continue to impress with their ability to come up good when they're truly committed to winning an event, in spite of recent bad form, injury or absence. |
We just spitball this. It's insane. |
What makes Maria so tough is the way she plays, the way she competes. The best part about Maria is her focus. But not to be reacting when somebody's down on the ground, not to even move from the back of the baseline, somehow you've got to shift out of that mode. That's when her focus can look very unattractive. |