Author John Wertheim - "Serena Williams will not be on a farewell tour"
John Wertheim has written one of the standard works for tennis fans, "Strokes of Genius - Federer, Nadal, and The Greatest Match Ever Played", the reappraisal of the legendary 2008 Wimbledon final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Wertheim is currently in Roland Garros as an expert for the Tennis Channel. A visit to the set.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: May 26, 2022, 08:25 am
By Jens Huiber from Roland Garros
Representatives from almost every country have spread out in the so-called "TV compound" in the Stade Roland Garros, in different forms: some broadcasters send mobile teams with moderators and experts through the system - such as ServusTV Andrea Schlager and Christopher Kas - some have one Set directly on the Philippe-Chatrier court, others moderate from quite far away, Barbara Schett, for example, greets for Eurosport International with Tim Henman from London.
The Tennis Channel plays in a very fine studio between Court 2 and Court 3, with the back to the place where Court 1, the bullfighting arena, used to almost guarantee legendary matches. John Wertheim is the pundits for the Tennis Channel, along with Chanda Rubin. Wertheim has been holding up the tennis flag for the US Sports Illustrated for years, not so easy in days like these given a certain slack in terms of major victories for the USA.
"Luckily Coco Gauff chose tennis"
John Wertheim welcomes you in a fine manner, it's pleasantly uncomplicated on the set of the Tennis Channel. So, Mr. Wertheim, who would you most likely bet on in US tennis? “We have great quantity at the moment, now we have to get the quality. There's a really nice core of players, but none of them are in the top ten yet. If you take the different rubbers into account and the age, then you probably end up with Taylor Fritz and Sebastian Korda. But who knows? There might be this one boy on a small island and his uncle is training him and raising him to be left-handed, or there's this woman from South Africa who's getting married to a Swiss guy and they're a normal, middle-class family and they have a talented son... It needs a trigger, it takes time and also luck.”
There are enough alternative sports. "Fortunately, Coco Gauff decided to play tennis." Which somehow should follow in the footsteps of Serena Williams. Speaking of which, will we see Serena at Wimbledon? "The reality is this: Serena is 40 years old and has not played at Wimbledon since last year. That was in June 2021. And you don't see her on Instagram with the message: I'm training again, I just changed my grip on the serve. On the one hand you don't see her playing tennis, but of course Serena is also proud and has achieved a lot. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if she tried one last time. With Federer you can at least see a few exercises from time to time that could indicate a comeback. And I can't imagine Serena wanting to do a farewell tour where she's honored with a video tribute at each stop."
The NBA also survived Michael Jordan's retirement
Williams and Federer will soon be gone, and Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic won't play forever either. What does that mean for tennis?
“I think there will be some growing pains. But sooner or later tennis will do well.” But who should carry the torch? John Wertheim has an idea. “It seems almost every year a new star emerges to take over the reigns. But the Big Three still win the titles. I was overseeing the NBA when Michael Jordan retired. And even then it was said: What should we do? Who will be interested in basketball now? And then Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and later Steph Curry come around the corner. In tennis, the big tournaments will continue and it will take a few years. But Carlos Alcaraz is a name that will play a big role.”
Of course there is a "problem": the fact that Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have won 61 Grand Slam titles together. "There are probably people who say about a player: Well, he wasn't that good either. He only won six majors! The standard set by the big three is so ridiculously high.” But it's not just the titles that Wertheim sees as a unique selling point for Nadal, Djokovic and Federer. "This consistency, never losing early, is also often overlooked."
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