GENE SCOTT PREDICTS THE FUTURE OF TENNIS IN CHINA, DID HE HAVE A CRYSTAL BALL?

Written by: Staff on 19th May 2014

GENE SCOTT PREDICTS THE FUTURE OF TENNIS IN CHINA, DID HE HAVE A CRYSTAL BALL?

epa04208954 Chinese tennis player Na Li returns the ball to Italian tennis player Sara Errani, during their match for the Italian Open tennis tournament at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, 16 May 2014. EPA/MAURIOZIO BRAMBATTI |

The following was published in the Feb. 25, 1988, edition of Tennis Week Magazine as a “Vantage Point” column and written by former Tennis Week founder and publisher Eugene L. Scott:

BEIJING — Those of you who seek clarification of the editorial drift of Tennis Week enunciated a few issues ago, would do well to note that this column covered the Australian Open without once mentioning Mats Wilander or Martina Navratilova. I should point out that Navratilova not only didn’t notice, but a week later, when I presented her with TW’s year-end issue (her photo being the cover) on a flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong, she poured over the copy without even stopping to peruse Vantage Point. Who ever questioned Martina’s tactics anyway?

After Gonzo reportage in Australia, this space’s connection to tennis became even more remote during my visit to China, where no tournament on either the Nabisco Grand Prix or Virginia Slims circuit exists. What a relief! No protests about playing an outdoor tournament indoors, no officiating squabbles, no objections to the fuzz density on the ball, no anti-aparthied demonstrators protesting Pat Cash’s presence. Bliss, in fact. Since the People’s Republic of China has no professional tennis activity whatsoever, it has all the foregoing fury to look forward to.

With only 200 courts and 5,000 players, more or less, vying for time on those courts, it would appear unlikely that the professional game will stamp its imprimatur on China very soon. But wait one minute. Remember, China has a population of 1.2 billion, and with only a micro percentage playing tennis, managed for the first time in its history to win three Davis Cup ties in 1987. Moreover, virtually all the important ministers of state, culture and sport play tennis. Even the American Ambassador to China, Winston Lord, and his wife, Bette Bao, the Chinese best-selling author, play.

In other words, China is a breathing firecracker waiting to explode into our sport. Don’t be put off by the horror stories of its cultural revolution or its communist political backdrop. This is a country whose aptitude for glasnost is grander than Gorbachev’s. This is also a nation which is changing so rapidly that the famous Fielding’s travel guide to China 1988 is already out of date. What does all this have to do with tennis?

China is midway into construction of an international tennis center in Beijing. A national training center already operates in Que Ling with 200 juniors in residence. At the forefront of the country’s emerging passion for tennis is M.M. Shaw, wife of the preeminent New York plastic surgeon William Shaw. She floats in that ambiguous zone somewhere between Peppermint Patty and Mother Theresa. She is convinced that by introducing a coach here and a pro tournament there, the Chinese juggernaut of people power will roll its tennis program to glory.

M.M. has a point. The Chinese juniors, you see, are not distracted by the pressures of money, college, booze, drugs, fast cars and fast women. They have made extraordinary progress, to now, even without proper equipment, courts, progressive coaching and a structured program. Personally, I saw two stylish 10-year-old left-handers whose forehands reminded me of John McEnroe’s. I was told one of the youngsters was a boy, the other a girl. Frankly, from a distance, I couldn’t tell the difference. Both had short, black hair, long legs, giant grins and ran like a wind in the South China Sea.

M.M. is presently shopping for a coach for the Chinese Davis Cup team’s first match of 1988 against Thailand in Bangkok the first weekend in April. The trip is long, over 20 hours from New York, even if you catch the right flight. The hours are long — the team is used to practicing seven hours a day — and the pay for now is non-existent but should certainly include airline ticket, hotel, food and the ceaseless gratitude of the Chinese tennis family which is rather small but will soon enough grow from commune to community and so on.

China still occasionally evokes fears of Mao Tse-Tung and of a Red Chinese Army steaming across Manchuria in 1950 to help the North Koreans fight South Korean and American soldiers. But come on, that was 38 years ago. The U.S. forged friendships with Germany and Japan so quickly after World War II that five years later we could play Davis Cup against both.

China, by association, may be unfairly tarred by the same brush of fear that North Korea swings in Seoul and poised to frighten nations into staying away from the Olympics next September. South Korea is, in fact, now preparing for a terror campaign by the Pyongyang regime against hotels, subways and department stores. Since tennis is an official part of the Olympics for the first time since 1924, the International Tennis Federation and the U.S. Tennis Association may be compelled to issue security precautions for its teams traveling to South Korea. Remember, not even two years ago, the USTA cancelled the participation of its junior representatives to the French and Wimbledon Championships because of a grisly spate of skyjackings and terrorist bombings overseas.

The sole consolation is that political analysts believe the greatest danger of attack will be well before the Games, in attempt to convince visiting teams that Seoul is unsafe.

The fact that both Russia and China have entered the Olympics is considered Seoul’s greatest defense weapon against disruption in that North Korea would not dare endanger the lives of athletes from its two primary allies.

China should not be even indirectly identified with these threats of mayhem. This ancient country has been making such mighty strides to pull up its economic and cultural socks that even the hint of connection to North Korea is unfair and unfounded. Concentrate instead on observing the progress of those two 10-year-old left-handers and don’t be startled if both are one day ranked in the world’s Top 100.

And then look over your shoulder at the other 1.2 billion pondering what their role should be in our sport.

Topics: China, Gene Scott, Li Na, Tennis, Tennis News, Tennis Week Magazine, Vantage Point

Follow 10SBALLS.COM on:

Facebook:

Twitter:

10sBalls_com says:

May 19, 2014 at 7:12 pm

GENE SCOTT PREDICTS THE FUTURE OF TENNIS IN CHINA, DID HE HAVE A CRYSTAL BALL? – http://t.co/wCDIVqVgXK #tennis #China