In all walks of life there are people you meet and come in contact with that you will get on with and others who won’t necessarily be your cup of tea.
I have been fortunate that in the near 30 years I have worked in tennis I have had good relationships with the players. Some obviously better than others. Some that have started very well and stayed in that vein for a long time but then turned negative.
My association with Lleyton Hewitt is one example of the latter, and we don’t exchange words even through I have tried to mend bridges. Pat Cash and I have had our run-ins but continue to converse and greet each other, while a bad word could never be said about Pat Rafter.
I have danced at black-tie dinners with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, even though I now feel Martina gets on a soapbox too often. However my respect for her will never wane.
Ivan Lendl remains one of my close friends, I can call or email Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander anytime, and I work with Serena and Venus Williams and Andy Roddick.
Generally the players are pretty good to deal with. However there are three players I just couldn’t stand; fortunately two have retired, Greg Rusedski and Marcelo Rios.
Rusedski always came across as a fake. He had, and continues to have, a dorky grin that would put the entrance to Luna Park to shame. He was just an irritating person.
Rios meanwhile came across as sleazy and always looked like he needed to be scrubbed down with Solvol. He was not a nice person to deal with so it was good that his term as a world number one was very short lived.
The third player is still around. American Vince (he has asked to be called Vincent) Spadea tries to be cool and when he talks it sounds like he took a masters degree in word slurring.
In the first round of the US Open he lost to Marat Safin in five sets. Talk about a clash and contrast of personalities. Safin is one of the characters of tennis and by comparison on a scale of one to ten, Spadea would owe the scale 15 points.
I often wonder when the 34-year-old from Boca Raton, Florida, will retire. It was only a couple of years ago that his parents stopped travelling weekly with him and the three of them would share the same hotel room. His parents never met a free buffet they didn’t like. One colleague joked: “They would come to tournaments to graze.”
He published a book a year or so ago that was an insiders revelation of what happens in the locker rooms, and while many would be keen to read about the goings on, he broke an unwritten rule between the players by revealing “secrets”. It’s a case of what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room.
Even James Blake, who wouldn’t say anything bad about a peer, had a dig at Spadea. Not too many players associate with him
At his post-match press conference following the Safin match he turned up wearing a do-rag, a bandana, on his head that had so many colours it would have put a rainbow to shame. He actually thought he was like “cool, man”.
His record in five-setters in poor and he suggested that he’d need to look at his game or “look at my name, you know, change it”. He was asked the obvious next question, what would it be changed to, and he said: “Whew. Um. I don’t know. Rodney Dangerfield. Vinny Spade. That’s like my alter ego, actually, my rap name.”
Yes, he has tried rap music as well. 50 Cent should sue Spadea for suggesting can do rap music.
Spadea is sort of out there on his own. Sometimes almost like a lost soul. He was asked where he sees himself in the scheme of things in American tennis, because the likes of Roddick, Blake and Fish are close and Agassi, Sampras, Courier and Chang were another group.
“I'm sort of like the guy who kind of attended the cocktail parties with the best of them throughout generations, which is kind of cool,” he said. “That's one good aspect, you know.
“I played, you know, the Samprases and Agassis and I played the Federers and Nadals and the Roddicks. But at the same time, there's always that player who is just, you know, almost famous. You ever heard of that? There's a movie about it.
“But I got my tales, and I've lived there's a version of fairytale that goes along with my life. I did accomplish some things that I could be proud of, even if I stopped right here at this podium.”
As I said the Spadeas never saw a free buffet they didn’t like.
