From: mliu@garden.csc.calpoly.edu (Mei-Ling L. Liu)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.tennis
Subject: Re: Pro-tennis Not Well-Served in the U.S.
Date: 2 Jan 93 04:55:38 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Computer Science Department, Cal Poly SLO

In article <1993Jan1.150354.29271@cbnewsh.cb.att.com> shun@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (shun.cheung), in response to my original posting, writes:
>
>The fact of the matter is that tennis is NOT among the major
>professional sports here in the US. Football, baseball and
>basketball get the spotlight. Part of the reason is simply
>"tradition." And IMO, *part* of the problem is that there is
>a shortage of American champions who have "character" or
>"image" or whatever you call it. Cannors and McEnroe are way
>past their prime. Courier, Sampras, and Chang have relatively
>quiet personality. Agassi is the only exception, but his success,
>at least in 1992, is spotty. On the women's side, there really
>has been no native born Americans at the very top since Evert
>retired in 1989.
This is the explanation that has been forwarded over and over again,
and I think it is a wrong mind-set.  The media always seems to be
trying to make tennis a popular sport by sensationalizing it: hence
the hoopla on the antics of Connors, McEnroe, and Agassi; when in
reality tennis will always likely remain a "elite" sport, appreciated
by a minority which, students excepted, are probably fairly good 
consumers. IMHO guys like Agassi do not really pull in lasting
fans.  In fact, Agassi's exhibition game in LA around Thanksgiving
was poorly attended, though it was shown both on ESPN and the Prime.
I believe that the media, and the ATP as well, should treat tennis
as the international sport that it is, and stress the play quality
rather than the personalily of individual players.  Look at the
papers and Tennis magazine: how many of them spend time to describe 
individual player's performance at a tournament?  At last year's U.S.
Open, the rain-delayed Edberg-Lendl match was attended by a full
house, even though it was held on a weekday afternoon and in spite
of the supposedly lack of charisma of both players.  So quality
competition is recognized by tennis fans, but these fans don't 
seem to be the target of the media, especially the print media.
Also, this theory that tennis needs American players with "characters"
is bogus.  If, with four of its young players in the top ten currently,
tennis still doesn't draw, then it will never.
>
>>Tennis magazine is the only entry for pro-tennis.  
>>I am not impressed with the quality of this publication, IMHO 
>>it lacks style as well as substance. 
>
>As complained by a reader's letter published in its January 1993
>issue, the main problem with Tennis is that it didn't put Edberg's
>picture on its cover when he won the US Open again in 1992. :-)

Just to clarify this comment by Shun: let me 'fess up that I :-) wrote
a letter to Tennis complaining about their putting Sampras on the
cover of the Nov. issue, with the headline "Edberg's Record Run (in
reference to his US Open repeat)" tossed in as an afterthought.  
Seriously, this is not the reason of my displeasure with the magazine.
I just find its level of writing disappointing, and it is just not
a very polished publication by today's standard.  It is also too
chauvinistic or nationalistic, as I have already touched on.
Edberg is not the only victim.  Boris Becker should definitely
have been on the cover of the Jan. issue, especially since he
was prominently mentioned in the magazine.
BTW the letter they published is a shadow of my original letter;
I am even more disillusioned about the magazine after seeing how
they edit a reader's letter.
>I guess the number of tennis magazines simply reflects
>the popularity of professional tennis here in the US. :-(

The small number of magazines bothers me less than the poor quality.
After all, who would have thought that the Architecture Digest would
find a large following?  It is the quality that's important, and
the market is ripe for it.  IMHO we need well-written articles
describing individual tournaments, accompanied by good photos.
It would also be interesting if individual player's play is
analyzed by someone like Tony Trabert.  This can be done along
with a profile on the player, which may include an interview.
The how-to articles are interesting, but there is so much repetition,
plus there are now many good books available on tennis techniques.
I think what I want is an international magazine featuring articles
from different countries, wherever the actions maybe.  Now, is
that too much to ask for?

M. Liu