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Maria Sharapova · The David Rubenstein Show

0:02
Speaker 1: One of the most successful female tennis players of the
0:05
Speaker 1: twenty first century is Maria Sharapova. She won Wimbledon at
0:08
Speaker 1: the age of seventeen and won a total of five
0:11
Speaker 1: Grand slams. Now she's retired from tennis and pursuing a
0:14
Speaker 1: career as an investor. I had a chance recent to
0:17
Speaker 1: sit down with her to talk about her new career
0:19
Speaker 1: and her old career. You were recently inducted into the
0:22
Speaker 1: International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the person who inducted
0:26
Speaker 1: you was Serena Williams, who you played many times and
0:31
Speaker 1: was your principal competitor. Was it awkward being inducted by her?
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Speaker 1: Or it was fun?
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Speaker 2: Awkward? Wasn't the right word, David. It was so exciting
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Speaker 2: and it was so thrilling.
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Speaker 1: Were you surprised at that she agreed to do it?
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Speaker 2: Well, it would have been. That would have been awkward,
0:49
Speaker 2: because that is a call that I made. And I said, well,
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Speaker 2: there's no one else I'd rather be on that stage
0:55
Speaker 2: than you, and she said, I'm honored. But it could
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Speaker 2: have gone the other way. Okay, it didn't, thankfully, and
1:02
Speaker 2: she was incredible. She was very thoughtful. Her speech. Her
1:05
Speaker 2: speech was really strong, but it was also very personal.
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Speaker 2: And there's that moment when she walked on stage of
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Speaker 2: like five to ten seconds when the crowd there was
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Speaker 2: like a bit of silence and shock and there's way
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Speaker 2: through the crowd, and I was like, I think we
1:20
Speaker 2: achieved what we wanted to achieve here.
1:22
Speaker 1: So let's talk about what it's like to be the
1:25
Speaker 1: number one tennis player in the world, your number one
1:27
Speaker 1: female tennis player in the world, and you were for
1:30
Speaker 1: many years number one, and you won many singles titles
1:34
Speaker 1: included Wimbledon. At the age of seventeen seems like an
1:37
Speaker 1: ungodly young age to win.
1:38
Speaker 2: It's a long time ago.
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Speaker 1: Just confirs. So, by the way, when you're won Wimbledon
1:43
Speaker 1: at age seventeen, I mean, did your world completely change?
1:46
Speaker 1: Did you? I mean, you were so young then and
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Speaker 1: you weren't the number one ranked player at that time.
1:50
Speaker 1: Did you? Were you surprised? And what did you do right?
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Speaker 1: If you? Did you call your parents? Were they there?
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Speaker 2: I did call my mom. She was actually on her
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Speaker 2: way to New York to meet me because I was
2:01
Speaker 2: then going to fly to New York for some press engagement,
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Speaker 2: and she saw me win on television while I was
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Speaker 2: playing the Wimbledon final. And what changed, well, a lot
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Speaker 2: changes for the good and for the bad. In that moment.
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Speaker 2: You're you're such a young girl, and all the things
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Speaker 2: that come with it that you've never really expected in
2:18
Speaker 2: your life. You know, an opportunity to say yes to
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Speaker 2: so many things when actually you should be saying no,
2:26
Speaker 2: and you know, getting back on the horse and doing
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Speaker 2: the things that made you a champion on that day,
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Speaker 2: because while you're winning, everyone else is trying, is training
2:34
Speaker 2: to beat you in the next tournament. I flew back
2:37
Speaker 2: to Los Angeles shortly afterwards, as my coach was was
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Speaker 2: there and my family and I used to stay when
2:43
Speaker 2: we visit him. We didn't have that much money at
2:46
Speaker 2: the time, but we'd stayed in one of these hotels.
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Speaker 2: And after I won Wimbledon, my agent upgraded us to
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Speaker 2: a hotel and it had this like yellow rubber duck
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Speaker 2: next to the bath. And I called him and I said,
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Speaker 2: winning Wimbledon is the best thing that's ever happened to me.
3:01
Speaker 2: And that's coming from a teenager's perspective.
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Speaker 1: No more hobbout and express or so that.
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Speaker 2: Was exactly the hotel we stayed up prior to anyone,
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Speaker 2: but then not an.
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Speaker 1: Ad in New York. You have to play at night?
3:12
Speaker 1: Was that a problem playing at nights in New York?
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Speaker 2: I was intimidated by the night match in New York. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: it was loud, it was I'm also something, I'm like
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Speaker 2: quite an introvert, and I you know, I love to
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Speaker 2: do my work and I love to be with my team,
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Speaker 2: and so like going through that tunnel where you know,
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Speaker 2: Billy Jean King's quota's pressure is a privilege, it was
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Speaker 2: like very intimidating, and then the noise and the crowd
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Speaker 2: and you never really had a RESTful moment in New York.
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Speaker 2: But I embraced it. Yeah, I loved it. And then
3:42
Speaker 2: we started doing like I worked with Nike for many
3:45
Speaker 2: years and they created first ever athlete that weren't like
3:48
Speaker 2: a separate dress for a night match. They created for
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Speaker 2: me it was an Audrey have Burned dress. And I
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Speaker 2: think like I just got like I got comfortable with
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Speaker 2: the environment of playing a night match.
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Speaker 1: So when you win Wimbledon, obviously you're excited. You're only
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Speaker 1: seventeen years old. Was there any match that could ever
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Speaker 1: replicate that's feeling of winning at Wimbledon? At seventeen or
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Speaker 1: was anything you want other championships? Was there anything ever
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Speaker 1: comparable to that?
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Speaker 2: Even winning the French Open to achieve a career Grand Slam.
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Speaker 2: I didn't think that I would feel like the strength
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Speaker 2: of that victory, but it really felt good because it
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Speaker 2: was a surface that was so challenging and it exposed
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Speaker 2: all my weaknesses. And as an athlete, that is playing
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Speaker 2: in front of thousands of people, when you know that
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Speaker 2: there is a particular weakness in your game and you're
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Speaker 2: able to turn that around in front of people and
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Speaker 2: make that into one of your strengths, was a really
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Speaker 2: strong moment.
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Speaker 1: Well, when you were playing tennis, you were making more
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Speaker 1: money from endorsements than from the prize money, and I
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Speaker 1: think for like seventeen years in a row or eighteen
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Speaker 1: years in a row, you were the highest paid femal
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Speaker 1: athlete when you're take into account endorsements and other things.
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Speaker 1: So you kind of made yourself into a brand. Did
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Speaker 1: you consciously say I'm going to be a brand and
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Speaker 1: more than just an athlete and was that hard to
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Speaker 1: do or you were focused on the athletics and the
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Speaker 1: other things just came along.
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Speaker 2: As a female athlete, I was very well aware that
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Speaker 2: at a certain point in my career, whether it was
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Speaker 2: injury related, whether I would want to start a family,
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Speaker 2: whether I just lose interest in the sport. I knew
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Speaker 2: that the day would come to call it quits, and
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Speaker 2: it would come sooner than other professions. And I made
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Speaker 2: a very conscious effort of setting up a platform and
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Speaker 2: a foundation that would make me feel Going into a
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Speaker 2: second chapter of anyone's career, whether you're an athlete or
5:42
Speaker 2: just coming from college and you're moving on to a
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Speaker 2: new chapter in your life, is really really challenging, and
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Speaker 2: I knew that it was going to be important for
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Speaker 2: me to feel like I have a strong foundation in
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Speaker 2: order to grow in another chapter.
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Speaker 1: Now you're at the top of the game in tennis
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Speaker 1: for quite some time, and now you're in the business world.
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Speaker 1: You're on the board of Montclair. When you go on
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Speaker 1: to board meetings, Now, did they say, well, she's a
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Speaker 1: former athlete, you don't expect her to know much about
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Speaker 1: the business world, or do they actually say, we want
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Speaker 1: to hear your opinion on the business side of it,
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Speaker 1: and you bone up on the business side, and how
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Speaker 1: actively are you involved in the board meetings?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I was very intimidated by the role. I was
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Speaker 2: intimidated that I was asked in the first place. I
6:22
Speaker 2: knew Rama Raffini for several years, and it's very official.
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Speaker 2: It's like a un meeting. You're sitting around this large
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Speaker 2: I mean, you've attended several board meetings in your life,
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Speaker 2: but this is one of my first. And there's a
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Speaker 2: microphone and it's translation because it's an Italian public trading company,
6:38
Speaker 2: so there's definitely like an intimidating factor to it, but
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Speaker 2: they're all very collaborative. I selfishly took on the role
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Speaker 2: because I felt like I could learn from a lot
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Speaker 2: of people sitting in that room. And I feel like
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Speaker 2: that's kind of been the trajectory of my career. Is
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Speaker 2: even though I was passionate and so deeply involved in
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Speaker 2: one thing, I stayed really open minded and curious out
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Speaker 2: other things. I let other people kind of guide my
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Speaker 2: education because I didn't have a formal education. So I
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Speaker 2: feel like this is, Oh.
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Speaker 1: If somebody is watching this and they say I have
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Speaker 1: a company that would benefit from having you on the board,
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Speaker 1: are you open to going on other boards? And if
7:15
Speaker 1: you go on a board, would you want to invest
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Speaker 1: in the company or you just want to be on
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Speaker 1: the board.
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Speaker 2: It depends on the company. I mean, you're really throwing
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Speaker 2: me on the foot. What's the company? Give me an example, Well,
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Speaker 2: I don't know.
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Speaker 1: Let's suppose Bernard or no calls you up and says
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Speaker 1: LVMH needs you on the board. I guess you would
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Speaker 1: probably say that might be a go attractive one.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a no brainer. Okay, that's a very easy
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Speaker 2: test though.
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Speaker 1: World. Now do you invest in companies?
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Speaker 2: I do?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, So you do you test the brands before, make
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Speaker 1: sure you actually like the brand. How do you decide
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Speaker 1: you're an investor or not?
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Speaker 2: Yeah. One of my first investments was when I felt
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Speaker 2: like I had like financial security from endorsement deals and
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Speaker 2: I was using an SPF brand called Supergroup for many years.
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Speaker 2: Bought it at Sepour myself and found the founder there
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Speaker 2: were five employees at the time, and said, look, I
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Speaker 2: don't need I don't need a return on investment right now,
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Speaker 2: I'll use my platform. I love your product. And then
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Speaker 2: seven to nine years later they sold seventy five percent
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Speaker 2: of their company for seven hundred and fifty million. So
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Speaker 2: that was like my first, my first real investment in
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Speaker 2: the space, and it did really well for me, and
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Speaker 2: it was there was a testament to what I what
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Speaker 2: I think is important investment and correct me if I'm
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Speaker 2: wrong is like being passionate about what you're investing in,
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Speaker 2: being a consumer, making sure that everyone around you is
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Speaker 2: a consumer and a strong team.
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Speaker 1: How do you compare the thrill of being in the
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Speaker 1: business where where you're either endorsing products or investing in
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Speaker 1: products with playing tennis?
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Speaker 2: There is no match point in business right, There's no
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Speaker 2: that like feeling of okay, now I either this one
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Speaker 2: point is on the line. I've gotten to this point
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Speaker 2: and it's make or break. So much will change, Like
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Speaker 2: there's none of that getting on your knees and waving
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Speaker 2: to the crowd. You know, And yes I missed those memories.
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Speaker 2: I missed those moments. But the adjustment period of working
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Speaker 2: through deals and getting to know founders and taking chances
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Speaker 2: on people who you've only know a certain amount of
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Speaker 2: time is very similar to my sport and what I
9:26
Speaker 2: had to endure for many years. So although there are similarities,
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Speaker 2: there's not that like moment of victory.
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Speaker 1: When you were playing tennis. Let's go back to the beginning.
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Speaker 1: You were born in Russia, Siberia. Yeah, and.
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Speaker 2: Now I'm being interviewed by you. So cool.
9:42
Speaker 1: You're born in Russia, But when your parents moved you
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Speaker 1: and your family out of there when you were relatively young,
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Speaker 1: is that right?
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Speaker 2: Yes? I was born in Siberia. When I was too
9:53
Speaker 2: we moved to Sochi, which is in the Black Sea,
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Speaker 2: and when I was five and a half years old,
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Speaker 2: we moved to Florida with my father.
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Speaker 1: So now I went there because you wanted to play tennis?
10:02
Speaker 1: Is that right or not?
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Speaker 2: I mean at five and a half, you're not really
10:05
Speaker 2: the one that's making decisions, right.
10:06
Speaker 1: I have a three year old and five and a half.
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Speaker 2: Even though he acts like he wants, you know, he
10:11
Speaker 2: knows everything.
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Speaker 1: But did your parents see and you athletic skill at
10:14
Speaker 1: five and a half? That's so young? And were you
10:17
Speaker 1: actually playing tennis before? And when did they say we
10:20
Speaker 1: should move to Florida and you can be a better
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Speaker 1: tennis player.
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Speaker 2: So I started when I was four, and I started
10:26
Speaker 2: playing tennis when I was four, and at five and
10:27
Speaker 2: a half, my father took me to this exhibition in Moscow.
10:31
Speaker 2: He saved up a little bit of money. We took
10:33
Speaker 2: the train from Sochi and Martina and Abratilova was holding
10:36
Speaker 2: like a kid's tennis clinic and there are a few
10:38
Speaker 2: hundred kids. And she pulled my father aside and said,
10:42
Speaker 2: your daughter has talent and you should go somewhere where
10:45
Speaker 2: this talent can be developed. And my father read every
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Speaker 2: newspaper articles. He saw that the Williams sisters were training
10:53
Speaker 2: in Florida. He saw that Anna Kunkova was training Florida,
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Speaker 2: and he's like, our path is going to Florida.
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Speaker 1: Did he have the money to do all that?
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Speaker 2: Not a lot. He landed with seven hundred dollars in.
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Speaker 1: His so he just came over with you. Your mother
11:04
Speaker 1: stayed behind.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, she stayed behind for two years. She couldn't get
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Speaker 2: a visa for the first two years.
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Speaker 1: And how did he explain you're only five and a half.
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Speaker 1: How they explain that your mother was staying behind and
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Speaker 1: he was coming over with you.
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Speaker 2: We didn't know that at the time because we thought
11:15
Speaker 2: she'd come over sooner.
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Speaker 1: But then and so you joined a tennis academy.
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Speaker 2: We went to Bolataia, which is a famous academy. We
11:21
Speaker 2: knocked on their door like middle of the night, said
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Speaker 2: we're here, and they're like, well, where's your money, like
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Speaker 2: we don't have any. And the coaches they welcomed me
11:30
Speaker 2: into a program and then I went off to center
11:34
Speaker 2: court after they saw me play, and I got a scholarship.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so you got a scholarship. But at what point
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Speaker 1: did you realize you actually were pretty good? I mean
11:42
Speaker 1: not just a person who says I'm five and a half,
11:44
Speaker 1: I'm good. Lots of little kids at five and a
11:45
Speaker 1: half say they're good. When did you realize you really
11:47
Speaker 1: were better than the average five and a half year old?
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Speaker 2: I never allowed myself to say that.
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Speaker 1: So when you became a teenager, were you beating other
11:55
Speaker 1: teenagers at bolitary?
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Speaker 2: Thing about being a young athlete is your The process
12:02
Speaker 2: is you play. You want to play against people that
12:06
Speaker 2: make you realize that you have weaknesses in your game.
12:10
Speaker 2: So you set yourself up up against competition that is
12:13
Speaker 2: either older, or stronger or better. And so if you
12:17
Speaker 2: feel like you're constantly winning, you're not learning much. And
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Speaker 2: I found that like even winning and when you're a
12:23
Speaker 2: teenager winning your twenties, that's not when you're doing your
12:25
Speaker 2: best work. When you're doing your best work is when
12:27
Speaker 2: you get off the court and you've just lost and
12:29
Speaker 2: you have to face your team and you have to
12:32
Speaker 2: get back to the drawing board and say, well, I
12:34
Speaker 2: mean we have to figure it out because we thought
12:36
Speaker 2: we were going to have a great day.
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Speaker 1: Well do you ever say to yourself, you know, I
12:39
Speaker 1: really would rather do something else at seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,
12:43
Speaker 1: twelve tennis? Isn't you know saw the young players get
12:46
Speaker 1: burned out? You probably saw that at Poltariyye burn out.
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Speaker 1: Their parents take them there and after a while they say,
12:51
Speaker 1: I don't really want to do this. You never got burnout, right.
12:54
Speaker 2: I loved what I did. I love being first in line.
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Speaker 2: I loved having the lesson at six am because that
13:00
Speaker 2: I love the feeling of like there's like a physical
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Speaker 2: exhaustion as an athlete at the end of the day,
13:05
Speaker 2: where you do everything that's in your capacity to be better,
13:08
Speaker 2: and as a female, I just I really related to
13:12
Speaker 2: if I can get a little better five percent, one percent,
13:15
Speaker 2: half percent, then I feel like I did great.
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Speaker 1: At what point did you realize you could be a
13:20
Speaker 1: champion when you're fourteen fifteen? When did you realize you
13:23
Speaker 1: could be a champion as opposed to I'm going to
13:25
Speaker 1: be reasonably good.
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Speaker 2: I never believe. I never allowed myself to believe that
13:33
Speaker 2: I could be a champion, because I always did my
13:35
Speaker 2: best work when I felt like I was going to
13:39
Speaker 2: jump off the cliff, like things weren't working well, because
13:41
Speaker 2: I have to keep proving to myself that I needed
13:44
Speaker 2: to work for it even harder, even deeper. I needed
13:46
Speaker 2: to dig deeper. It's it's hard in tennis. You're playing
13:50
Speaker 2: ten months out of the year, and you may win
13:53
Speaker 2: a Grand Slam, but in a few weeks you have
13:55
Speaker 2: another one, so you feel like you're on top of
13:58
Speaker 2: the world, and a few weeks later you can be
14:00
Speaker 2: you know, you're in the press room and everyone's ridiculing
14:03
Speaker 2: you for losing the first round.
14:04
Speaker 1: Now, when you're playing tennis, at the end of a match,
14:06
Speaker 1: if you lose, or when the players go they shake
14:08
Speaker 1: hands or they hug each other whatever they.
14:10
Speaker 2: Do rarely hug each other.
14:11
Speaker 1: But yeah, so, but you really don't like the other person.
14:14
Speaker 1: Is it hard to kind of pretend you're like them
14:16
Speaker 1: when you're hugging them, or is that you get used
14:18
Speaker 1: to that.
14:19
Speaker 2: I was pretty honest about just about the relationship of
14:23
Speaker 2: being an athlete to another athlete, Like I always found
14:26
Speaker 2: it really difficult of sharing this thought of, oh, why
14:29
Speaker 2: don't we have a drink or go out to dinner
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Speaker 2: and have an appetizer, Like when I'm trying to really
14:35
Speaker 2: beat you the next day and I'm going to pump
14:37
Speaker 2: my fist in your face, but then I'm going to
14:39
Speaker 2: give you a hug after it Just it never really
14:41
Speaker 2: made sense.
14:43
Speaker 1: Okay, So like in the locker rooms before they get
14:45
Speaker 1: the matches and you're in the locker room with your
14:47
Speaker 1: people you're about to play, you have small talk with them,
14:51
Speaker 1: or you just don't talk with them because you're trying
14:52
Speaker 1: to you know, remember you're going to beat them, So
14:54
Speaker 1: do you talk to them or you don't do anything.
14:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, small talk wasn't my specialty. I'll be honest. I
15:01
Speaker 2: was very focused and I was very like the locker
15:04
Speaker 2: room was my office, and you know, I wouldn't spend
15:07
Speaker 2: much time there. I was, I was in and out.
15:10
Speaker 2: I treated it as a really important profession.
15:12
Speaker 1: And so today you don't play tennis at all.
15:16
Speaker 2: I don't know proms, friends don't want to play with me.
15:20
Speaker 1: Well, but I assume you get invited the pro ams
15:23
Speaker 1: all the time and you don't want to do those
15:24
Speaker 1: kind of things.
15:27
Speaker 2: I guess the honest answer is I don't want to
15:29
Speaker 2: be a sad version of my old self. Like I knew,
15:33
Speaker 2: like what I loved about the sport was how how
15:37
Speaker 2: quick it was, how reactive it was, how powerful it was.
15:40
Speaker 2: When you don't play it for a long time, you
15:41
Speaker 2: don't you don't have you know, you don't have that anymore.
15:44
Speaker 1: Well, have you ever played mixed doubles?
15:47
Speaker 2: I wasn't very good at mixed domes. Well, I wasn't
15:50
Speaker 2: very good at sharing.
15:52
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, if you ever wanted to play mixed doubles,
15:54
Speaker 1: we could have a I could show up, you come
15:56
Speaker 1: to my house at court and we would pretend that
15:59
Speaker 1: you're just an average person who's visiting for the weekend,
16:01
Speaker 1: and then we'll just see if we can win some money.
16:03
Speaker 2: That we we just have one court.
16:05
Speaker 1: I have one court per house.
16:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of the answer I wanted to
16:12
Speaker 2: get from him.
16:14
Speaker 1: So, at any point in your tennis career, did you
16:17
Speaker 1: say I've had enough and I'm just going to retire
16:20
Speaker 1: at the top, or how much athletes sometimes stay a
16:23
Speaker 1: little bit longer than they should. You didn't do that,
16:25
Speaker 1: But did you ever worry about that problem staying too long.
16:28
Speaker 2: It's a great question, and it's one that I think
16:31
Speaker 2: every every athletes find finds a different answer to. Mine
16:35
Speaker 2: came a little bit later than when I would have liked.
16:38
Speaker 2: I think like stubbornness was a great quality that shaped
16:42
Speaker 2: a lot of my victories. But in the end of
16:44
Speaker 2: my career, I think it I think it became a
16:48
Speaker 2: flaw because I was so stubborn to get healthy for
16:51
Speaker 2: my shoulder to recover. I was also at an age
16:54
Speaker 2: where just my body didn't recover as quickly, and so
16:57
Speaker 2: I for a year or two that stubborness got in
16:59
Speaker 2: a way of other great things in my life.
17:01
Speaker 1: Were your parents athletes themselves?
17:03
Speaker 2: My father thinks he's an athlete, but I lived.
17:06
Speaker 1: Was he a competitive athlete?
17:07
Speaker 2: I think the most fathers can occasionally relate that they're great.
17:11
Speaker 1: Did he play any sport that we would have heard of?
17:13
Speaker 2: Or he played hockey? He's now cycles around the world. Yeah,
17:18
Speaker 2: I mean he still thinks he's like in the Senior Olympic.
17:20
Speaker 1: Obviously you're for you're tall. You're six foot two.
17:26
Speaker 2: That's accurate.
17:27
Speaker 1: Okay, six foot two, Okay, So there aren't that many
17:30
Speaker 1: female tennis players that are six foot two. There are
17:32
Speaker 1: maybe a few. So when did you realize you had
17:35
Speaker 1: the physical strength and height to really be a really
17:39
Speaker 1: great player? Was that when you were twelve, thirteen, fourteen?
17:43
Speaker 2: I didn't. I don't think I realized like the advantage
17:47
Speaker 2: that I'd have if I was taller. And I didn't
17:49
Speaker 2: grow until I won Wimbledon. I was still I was
17:51
Speaker 2: like average height and I was still growing through that time.
17:54
Speaker 2: But I do remember my father thinking, Okay, it would
17:57
Speaker 2: be better if she grew, so before I went to sleep,
18:00
Speaker 2: like hung a rod at the door and like for
18:02
Speaker 2: like thirty seconds before I went to sleep, because my
18:05
Speaker 2: parents would say, well, when you're sleeping is when you're
18:07
Speaker 2: like bodies developing and you're growing. So they kind of
18:10
Speaker 2: like made me stretch my body so.
18:12
Speaker 1: That, okay, did you have siblings.
18:16
Speaker 2: I didn't have siblings.
18:17
Speaker 1: Now, gay, I'm an only child myself, so.
18:21
Speaker 2: It's great. I loved it. I still do.
18:24
Speaker 1: What would you say is the thing you're most proud
18:26
Speaker 1: of having done as a tennis player. Was it winning Wimbledon?
18:29
Speaker 1: What was the highlight of your tennis career.
18:31
Speaker 2: I'd say consistency. I think consistency is you can have
18:36
Speaker 2: results and they could you know, come at different various
18:39
Speaker 2: times in your career, but I was. I was consistent
18:42
Speaker 2: for many years. And you have to show up. You
18:45
Speaker 2: don't just show up to play first round of the finals,
18:48
Speaker 2: but you have to show up for press conferences after
18:50
Speaker 2: before every match, before every tournament, and just the consistency
18:54
Speaker 2: and the mental wear and tear of showing up week
18:57
Speaker 2: in week out. So I felt like I could consistently
19:00
Speaker 2: showed up for my team, for my sponsors, and for
19:05
Speaker 2: a long period of time. I'd say that as I
19:07
Speaker 2: look back, I'm proud of that.
19:09
Speaker 1: Now, when you're just watching tennis as an observer, who
19:12
Speaker 1: do you like to watch in the let's say last
19:15
Speaker 1: ten or twenty years. Are there certain players who have
19:17
Speaker 1: such style or such athletic ability just like watching them
19:21
Speaker 1: just as a fan? Or who would that be?
19:25
Speaker 2: I think I've really enjoyed watching the sport from a
19:28
Speaker 2: completely zoomed out perspective. I never allowed myself like when
19:32
Speaker 2: I was playing, they started like engaging fans and these
19:36
Speaker 2: fan experiences like that was an entirely new world for me.
19:39
Speaker 2: Like fans would come to practice, which for many years,
19:42
Speaker 2: you know, practice courts were closed off. I mean now
19:45
Speaker 2: the first week of the US Open is like a
19:48
Speaker 2: fan week, right, You have mixed doubles during the US Open.
19:50
Speaker 2: You have all these like parties, engagements that never happened
19:55
Speaker 2: in my career. So I guess I've been intrigued by
19:58
Speaker 2: the change. I also under stand the demands of that
20:01
Speaker 2: and how exhausting and physically challenging it is for those
20:05
Speaker 2: players to go through a three week I mean, we're
20:07
Speaker 2: in the second week of the US Open right now.
20:09
Speaker 2: Players are playing the quarters in the semis. I mean
20:12
Speaker 2: the engagements and the matches that they've had to play
20:15
Speaker 2: and participate in the past two and a half weeks.
20:17
Speaker 2: When this tournament's over, they're going to need a long vacation.
20:21
Speaker 1: So in tennis, theoretically, when you're playing these championship matches
20:25
Speaker 1: that coaches are not supposed to be telling you anything
20:27
Speaker 1: that's changed. Now they can. They can give you hand
20:30
Speaker 1: signals or they just tell.
20:31
Speaker 2: You, well, yeah, whatever they want.
20:34
Speaker 1: Okay, And so does that help you that much? We
20:36
Speaker 1: just say, look, leave me alone. I know what I'm doing.
20:38
Speaker 2: It depends how the match is going. There are a
20:41
Speaker 2: few times where I would tell my coach it's enough.
20:46
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean it's the stress of the situation.
20:48
Speaker 2: I think guides the communication between the player and the coach.
20:51
Speaker 2: Some players love it. They openly communicate to their coaches.
20:55
Speaker 2: I know Al Qraz does it very often, whereas others,
20:59
Speaker 2: I think centered does it less often.
21:01
Speaker 1: And did you get to know Nick Plitary?
21:03
Speaker 2: I did?
21:04
Speaker 1: And was He didn't not to play tennis, did he?
21:07
Speaker 1: He was a coach.
21:08
Speaker 2: He was a coach, and he he was more of
21:10
Speaker 2: a mentor to me than a coach. He kind of guided.
21:13
Speaker 2: He'd come on the court and he'd make you feel
21:16
Speaker 2: like you were part of like his family, and that
21:20
Speaker 2: was a really that was a special feeling, especially when
21:23
Speaker 2: you didn't come from much and when you didn't have
21:24
Speaker 2: much support around you. He was one of the first
21:26
Speaker 2: few coaches that kind of acknowledged.
21:28
Speaker 1: So today you don't do any athletics at all or you,
21:35
Speaker 1: I mean, you work out, but you're not.
21:37
Speaker 2: No, I just don't. Yeah, I don't play much time
21:39
Speaker 2: and I should. I want to, But it's like a thing,
21:42
Speaker 2: you know, you have to like string your racket. You
21:44
Speaker 2: have to book a court. I don't have a court
21:47
Speaker 2: at my house like you do.
21:48
Speaker 1: Well, so I have to go.
21:49
Speaker 2: I have to go to a public place walking.
21:51
Speaker 1: Around New York, people recognize you. And when people come
21:54
Speaker 1: up to you and say, can I have a selfie?
21:57
Speaker 1: What do you say?
22:01
Speaker 2: It happened yesterday. I was staying at the Ammon and
22:03
Speaker 2: I went for a swim and I get out of
22:06
Speaker 2: a pool and it was really awkward. Someone asked for
22:08
Speaker 2: a photo and I, you know, and usually I'm very
22:12
Speaker 2: open to photos, but in that instance, I was like,
22:14
Speaker 2: we're kind of in a private space, and you know,
22:17
Speaker 2: perhaps we can do it another time and they're disciplined.
22:20
Speaker 1: Can you go to a restaurant and people don't bother you?
22:23
Speaker 2: Yes? Yes, definitely okay?
22:25
Speaker 1: And so do you miss people not coming up to
22:28
Speaker 1: you saying hey, I know who you are or you
22:29
Speaker 1: actually you're happy they don't come up to you.
22:33
Speaker 2: I think what I loved about recognition was like respect
22:37
Speaker 2: for what you for what you did. I mean, it
22:41
Speaker 2: was a lot of work. So when someone would come
22:43
Speaker 2: up to you and say, you know, it was incredible
22:46
Speaker 2: seeing what you achieved, or a young girl or boy
22:48
Speaker 2: coming up and saying, you know, you were my idol.
22:52
Speaker 2: That just that was a nice feeling of respect. But
22:56
Speaker 2: I don't miss the things that.
22:58
Speaker 1: Come In the end, if you could do anything different
23:01
Speaker 1: in your life other than this interview, what would you
23:05
Speaker 1: what would you most have done different wish you had
23:08
Speaker 1: done differently? You'd won more tournaments, not one as many,
23:11
Speaker 1: not played as long, yea, what would you wish you
23:13
Speaker 1: had done differently?
23:15
Speaker 2: I like the thought of not of doing things and
23:20
Speaker 2: letting them flow and leaning into things being hard and difficult.
23:24
Speaker 2: I don't want to look back and say I should
23:27
Speaker 2: have done something, because the reason I'm here, the reason
23:29
Speaker 2: I want these events, was because I probably messed up
23:33
Speaker 2: a few times and I lost some really tough matches,
23:36
Speaker 2: and I lean into feeling like this doesn't feel good
23:39
Speaker 2: and what am I going to do to change it.
23:42
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
23:45
Speaker 1: can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or
23:49
Speaker 1: wherever you listen.