FUZZED: We Wanna Know!

“Another error. She’s given away 5 1/2 games!…It’s been a bad day at the office for Safina…tut, tut. We all have them, but not so publicly.” (One of the Eurosport Brit commentators in Dubai, of course)

Dinara’s coach was telling her during the changeover to keep her eyes on the ball. She was double faulting, mishitting and mistiming everything, especially her forehand. Her bad streak and subsequent loss of faith in herself began at last year’s Olympics, I think – it’s not that recent. But it was on the big screen when she lost the Oz final badly. Much less talented players are feeding off her now. It’s killing her – she’s inherited that explosive streak of temper, like her brother.

Ivanovich also struggled with herself much of last year. She beat a gritty Kleybanova (the pink & purple outfit not much better than the yellow & purple one, courtesy Nike) in a tense match. Ana prevailed, seems happy with her new coach.

Ah, the coaching gig. The matchups aren’t exactly like marriages, it’s more teacher & student, but there are some similarities. You do spend a lot of time together, or that’s the general idea. And it’s a matchup of 2 unique personalities, so they’ve got to have chemistry. We almost never hear the intricate details or psychology of those relationships – those are kept more private than the stuff in many marriages – as career-changing as they may be. We outsiders are left to speculate, and speculate we do, especially when coach and player break up. Brad-Andre, Brad-Andy, Jimmy-Andy. If a player is constantly changing coaches, like Marat – the consensus is that it’s something about the player that’s off.

What about a Tennis Magazine or Tennis Channel or someone paying a coach’s salary and getting the day-to-day/match-to-match story of the good and bad between coach and player? The fly on the wall view, or um, the Tennis Reality Show on ESPN? That would be one reality show I’d actually watch, along with you other tennis voyeurs! Hmmm, maybe I should pitch the idea to ESPN or the Tennis Channel. What do you think?