INTERVIEW REPLAY - Click here.
If you’re on Twitter and follow any of the pro tennis players or tennis bloggers, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve run across a prolific Tweeter, @FortyDeuceTwits.
A youngen from the San Francisco Bay Area, C Note, as she’s also known, has taken her love of tennis, writing, living in the moment, and traveled around the globe following the men’s and women’s pro tennis tours for all of 2011.
22 tournaments in all.
Uh, that’s the old passport stamped a few times.
Never one to mince words, Courtney Nguyen gave up a law career to pursue her love of writing, traveling, and sort of seeing what kind of trouble she could stir up.
She’s now a tennis contributor to SI.com and updates her blog frequently over at FortyDeuce. Her recent post summarizes her worldwide 2011 tennis travels.
Dang, I’m jealous …
A slightly different style of reporting, and one that is beautifully & unabashedly biased and generally fueled by other beverages other than Gatorade, this kid is living the dream out there traveling the world, watching some of the best athletes on the globe every week, and writing about it on her blog and as a major tweeter on Twitter as @FortyDeuceTwits.
If you’re in love with tennis, it doesn’t get much better than this.
Courtney was kind enough to agree to a comp live conference call this Monday Jan 2 at 3:00pm Pacific time zone so we can ask her what’s really going on out there on the pro tours!
Join me and Courtney for what I’m sure promises to be a different look at the men’s and women’s pro tours.
This interview with Courtney took place on Monday Jan 2, 2012. Here’s the replay.
Right click to download the mp3 file.
As always, would enjoy reading your feedback and comments below. Thanks …
What strokes are better to be hit by holding the racquet with the fingers spread out and with fingers tight together?
All of em ..
Brent
Which tournament has been the best you’ve ever attended?
Wow. Best I’ve *ever* attended?
I have to go with Wimbledon last year or Indian Wells in 2008. I really enjoyed every single day of Wimbledon and even if I didn’t have a ticket to a show court (which was often) it was just fun walking around the grounds and hanging out at the outer courts.
Indian Wells 2008 is where I caught the “live tennis” bug. It helped that two of my favorite players, Ana and Novak won that year, as well. But Indian Wells is truly tennis heaven. The weather, the venue, and of course, the tennis make it hands down the best non-Slam tournament out there.
1) What kinds of interesting entertainment or learning opportunities have you across, related to tennis, when not sitting in the stands watching the tournament matches. I think I saw something where they were encouraging fans to hit serves in a booth where they could measure their service speeds.
2) What were your three favorite tournament locations and why?
3) What were some of your disappoints and frustrations that were hard to deal with, that differed from your expectations before you started your journey.
4) Were you able to make friends with any of the players and get involved in some activities with them?
5) I assumed your writing opened some doors for you, or maybe some of your experiences or contacts you have made. Where do you see yourself a year from now?
I have to take my elderly mother shopping today so I may miss the phone chat. Sorry.
1) As I was embarrassed to admit on the live chat, I actually don’t play tennis very well. So I’ve never participated in any of the on-site clinics or games that they put on. But in terms of learning opportunities, I’ve taken the time to go to a few of the museums that some tournaments have onsite, and those have been great.
2) 3 Favorite Tourney Locations: Wimbledon, Indian Wells, Rome. All three had pretty easy logistics and are designed to reward the wanderer. Indian Wells and Rome have pretty good practice court access (though now that Rome is joint they should try and get more practice courts onsite) and outer courts are nice and intimate, allowing the fans to get right up close.
3. Never underestimate how much the constant travel takes out of you. I now have so much sympathy for the players and am much more willing to write off any shock early round losses. Jumping from city to city, lugging everything through airports, adjusting to lag and culture/language shock, it’s exhausting and infuriating. Other disappointments/frustrations: Learning different ticketing systems from country to country, no alcoholic beer at Roland Garros, trying to figure out late night transportation options when you don’t speak the native language.
4. This may sound strange, but I actually have no desire to become actual friends with the players and I’m quite conscious of keeping my distance. I worry that becoming friends would affect how I write about them and undermine my objectivity. That said, when you’re traveling with the tour for as long as I did, players obviously recognize you, you see each other at bars/restaurants/cafes, and one thing leads to another and next thing you know you find yourself in a beer chugging contest with a bunch of ATP players, or on the dance floor with a chair umpire, or having a former player sing Journey at you. All true stories.
5. I genuinely have no idea what I’ll be doing a year from now and I honestly don’t try and think about it. If you were to tell me a year ago that I’d be writing for SI, or a year before that that I would travel the globe following the tour, or a year before that that I would quit my job to blog full time, I would have called you a bunch of nasty names. I’ve come to embrace the fact that I’m just along for the ride these days and I barely plan my days let alone weeks, or months, or years in advance. The image that comes to mind is this one: I just see myself out in the middle of the ocean on a surf board, picking and choosing which waves I want to ride. Some are great waves that I pass up, some are little dinky ones that speak to me and I try to ride only to fail. But it’s not about the destination these days. I know I have to return to shore eventually. But right now I’m just enjoying the peaceful but exhilarating state of patient anticipation for whatever is beyond the horizon. Hopefully it’s something good. But even if it’s not, it’s been an awesome ride already.
Courtney – wow. Way above and beyond the call of duty with all of your responses here.
Thanks so much.
Brent
Hey Courtney! Nice to put a name with a face and to see you enjoying a Pimms No.1 cup! (I had many of those this past year!)
Has traveling to tennis events been the same since Josh Joshovic went awol?
Other than the 4 Grand Slams, which is your favorite tennis event?
If you had the opportunity to buy Petko a beer and have an informal interview over said beverage, which kind of beer would you buy her and what would be the first non-tennis related question you’d ask her?
I give you a definitive “no” on that first question. Josh was my drinking buddy. People think may think I’m kidding, but I really did go to bars, sit down, put my little Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal on the bar, and order my beer. Somehow I liked the fact that it made me look both juvenile and a little bit nuts.
Fave event other than the Slams? Indian Wells. But I have to give a shout out to Cincy as well. I really enjoy that tournament, though the heat can be oppressive.
I would buy Petko an Anchor Steam, the official beer of San Francisco, and I’d ask her in a totally non-creepy way, to come to Coachella with me. I think we’d rock the crap out of Coachella and it would giv me an excuse to hang out with her and keep talking about music for three days.
Hey Courtney,
What has been your favorite aspect of working in this field? What has surprised you the most?
Thanks!
-Kelyn
All the people I’ve met, whether fans, writers, tour personnel, or players, have been fantastic. I consider quite a few of them close personal friends now and in that way, tennis has already given me so much.
What has surprised me the most is how receptive people have been to me and my writing. I genuinely believe that mine is a very unlikely “success” story, if you will. I’m still shocked and grateful every day that I get to write about tennis. I love it.
I’m not able to make the call. Will there b e a replay? Thanks.
Hi David. I sent out the link to the replay yesterday. It’s now shown above in this post.
Thanks for your interest.
Brent
Hey guys.
Thanks for your comments. I’ll ask Courtney to visit this post and respond to your comments once she gets settled into either Japan or Australia in the next few days or so.
Brent
hi, tell Courtney to touch base next year in Wimbledon and maybe I will try to get her into the member’s enclosure. Cheers, Charlie
I’m a writer (of books mostly). In fact, I am dreaming up a book about tennis. So I am I enjoyed Courtney’s conversation with you very much. Thanks!
Hi David. Glad you were able to join us.
Give us a sneak peek of the book when it’s ready!
Brent
Great fun Brent, thanks for always trying out new ways to bring us Great tennis content!
Hey Steve. Always great to hear from you.
That was fun with C Note!
Brent
Brent, you got my attention when you asked her about her “gonzo” approach. I totally did not expect you to bring Hunter Thompson into the tennis world. You really are more than just another pretty face!!
Ah, a fellow supporter of the former sheriff of Aspen.
I can’t remember when or who turnd me on to HT, but wow, things changed pretty quickly for me afterwards.
Good to hear from you Robert.
Brent
Hi Courtney.
Ken sent me an email with the following question for you:
“I plan to attend the Australian Open in 2013.
The starting date is January 14, Monday which is the only date that I can attend.
How do I get to watch the best players and or the best matches in the main stadium on that date?
Realistically, are the top seeded players even playing on that day and if not which days do they finally play?
Thank you,”
Ken
Well if that’s the only day you can attend and you absolutely want to sit on Rod Laver Arena (the main stadium) then your only bet is to try and buy yourself a ticket to Laver that day. Half of the top seeds will play that day, so you’re guaranteed to see the big dogs. My only caveat is that the matches themselves might not be great. The top guys and gals usually roll through the competition for the first few days so they matches aren’t particularly competitive. But if you really have your heart on seeing the top seeds play, a ticket to Laver won’t disappoint.