Coming Clean or Selling Books???

When tennis player Andre Agassi admitted all of his personal demons was he seeking peace or was it a means of trying to sell books? I can remember watching a young Agassi and thinking that he was hungry for attention. The punk rock hair style and the flashy headbands in my opinion were just Andre saying look at me! I believe Ivan Lendl described a young 17-year-old Agassi best in a scouting report at the Stratton Mountain Tournament in 1987 when he described him as “a haircut and a forehand”.

We all know that people change. The change that we witnessed in Andre may be the best change that has ever happened to tennis. We witnessed a young, attention hungry kid grow up and become the guy that played with more heart than any other player on tour. He changed from the guy who you wanted to see lose to the guy you wanted to watch win. I can remember Agassi’s last US Open and being fortunate enough to watch his last match in person. The guy could barely walk due to his bad back, yet he played every point with everything he had. He chased down every ball and then would hobble his way to the chair during crossovers. It was one of the most incredible performances I have ever witnessed. I remember leaving the Open and walking outside and as I was doing so I actually witnessed Agassi laying on the hot concrete sidewalk waiting for the shuttle back to his hotel because his back wouldn’t allow him to stand up. It was an effort like this that made me forget about that attention craved 17-year-old kid and made me think that Agassi was the poster child, role model for all young tennis players!

Now comes Open, the autobiography where Andre comes roaring back into the spotlight and shocking the world with his recreational drug use confessions. What was he trying to do? Did that 17-year-old attention hungry kid resurface in a means of selling books or was it the gutsiest performance of his career? I tend to believe that it was his gutsiest performance ever. Andre has found peace in the truth and I’m not sure how many of us out there can stand up and face our personal demons in the way Andre has. What do you think?

Tracy Lynch
Wholesale Accounts Manager
Lee Tennis Court Products

Recent Trip to Australia

I just got back last week from a trip to Australia which revolved partially around the Australian Open and partially around visiting some of the many Tennis Sites around Australia. The people were great, the tennis was great, and the country was beautiful and very interesting. I was really impressed with the friendly folks I meet and they are great tennis fans as you may have surmised from the enthusiasm you saw on TV during the tournament. I got to see the Ladies play on Thursday in the semi’s and saw Serena bounce back from losing her cool at the US Open to win her next Slam opportunity. She was impressive but so was her opponent Li Na from China who gave her a great match and all she wanted on this particular day. Having two Chinese women in the semi’s is a big deal for the Chinese and based on information from our contractor in China may put Tennis as the number 3 sport in China. There is certainly more “Respect” for the game now in China and that is very important to the Chinese.

The main message that I would like to share today is about the commitment both these countries are showing towards training their kids on clay. Both of the countries have reached the same conclusions that we have here in the U.S., that the best players in the World have for the most part, developed their games around clay courts. It was especially interesting to learn while down there that the Tennis greats from Australia like Laver and Rosewall grew up playing on clay. Yes, the Open Tournament was on grass back then but the grass wasn’t available all year and at least half of their development time was on the clay. If you ever saw them play you could see that they had the diversity of weapons that come from learning to win on Clay and these greats that are legends of the game were displayed prominently at the Stadium site. The Stadium in Melbourne was very impressive and they have made heavy commitments to expand and add even another covered stadium to their center. Equally important they have made commitments to get some Aussie’s back in contention like the old days. Tennis Australia is really taking growth of the game seriously and that includes putting in Clay for the main training centers throughout the country. We were able to visit several of these sites and are working now to get some of our Har-Tru courts in some of those key locations. We to are committed to introducing them to our Har-Tru courts and that will hopefully happen soon at a couple key locations where they want the best and where they have shown a keen interest in both our Har-Tru court and the HydroCourt underground watering system.

One more word of thanks for the hospitality that was shown to me all during my trip. It was great to see such dedicated folks who love the game of Tennis “Down Under”

John Welborn, Lee Tennis