Serbian siren

26 January 2008

Taki lives the High Life

When I was playing tennis, busybodies were complaining about pseudo amateurism. Roy Emerson, winner of 12 grand slams, used to get no more than $1,000 for a very rich tournament like Hamburg; $500 was more like it for a week’s play before tie-breaks were invented and without chairs or umbrellas on the court. I got 50 bucks one time at the Volpi Cup in Venice, plus hospitality, and I apologised to Marquis Cavriani after losing a close match for having taken money under false pretences. Cavriani ran the Italian championships and was a gent. He also liked gents and had taken a shine to me. He somehow always found a place in the draw for me. After my inevitable loss, he would sigh and say, next year I’m sure you will play better. The French also liked me, as did the Belgians. The worst were the English, who would dig up the most embarrassing of losses and throw it in my face when I complained about having to qualify at Wimbledon.

Of course, those were the days. Players actually liked each other and travelled together, stayed in the same hotels, played poker and chased women, not that the players back then were as obsessed as I was with the fairer sex. They married young, which inevitably found me alone in some bar looking for women, while my fellow players were resting in the arms of their loved ones. No wonder I never made it. Oh, if only Ana had been born 50 years earlier, I would be travelling with her to Baden-Baden, Venice, Rome, Paris, even London, going to bed immediately after practice and being oh so happy and content. Perhaps in the next life.

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Sharon Reid

January 24th, 2008 11:57pm Report this comment

You said it all perfectly. Nidzovic is a siren and a very nice one. Fingers crossed that she does beat Sharapova. (Nadal unfortunately as you will know lost last night - but he was very respectful about it). And as for the ghastly Bill Clinton - again perfectly said. Let's hope his equally ghastly wife does not make it to the White House. And no - I am not a Serb. I am a New Zealander.

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