Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Sitdown.
Speaker 1: I'm Mattrolope, a rat an editor for oz open dot com.
Speaker 2: And I'm Big Christian, managing editor for Australian Tennis magazine.
Speaker 2: And Matt, why are we sitting down this week with
Speaker 2: Mary Carillo?
Speaker 1: Well, viv The timing's perfect because later this year, in
Speaker 1: the week ahead of the uside bit, Mary's being inducted
Speaker 1: into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. And not only that,
Speaker 1: but she's being inducted alongside Roger Federer, which is so cool.
Speaker 1: Mary had a fabulous playing career of her home. She
Speaker 1: won the Roland Garross mixed doubles title with John McEnroe
Speaker 1: in the seventies and rose to world number thirty three
Speaker 1: in singles. But since retiring, she's gone on to have
Speaker 1: an even more distinguished broadcast career.
Speaker 2: Mary's actually been inducted in a contributor category, which is
Speaker 2: thoroughly disserved because she's had such a spectacular broadcast career.
Speaker 2: As you say, and even though she is too humble
Speaker 2: to say it, she's set a fabulous example for other
Speaker 2: women in the sport.
Speaker 1: Mary Carillo, thank you very much for joining us today
Speaker 1: on the Sit Down Podcast. It's great to see you.
Speaker 3: It's great to see you, and I really enjoy your part.
Speaker 3: I really enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2: It's good.
Speaker 1: Good to know we have a listener or a watch
Speaker 1: up we got on.
Speaker 3: Well, I love I love what you two did with
Speaker 3: my great friend Lindsay Davies.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3: She's about as great an American as we We.
Speaker 2: We love that interview, didn't we. We could have talked
Speaker 2: to Lindsay for hours, but again we had limited.
Speaker 1: Studio studio time. But yeah, Lindsay was phenomenal and where Yeah,
Speaker 1: really pleased that you've joined us as well as another
Speaker 1: fantastic guest. We're in the in the world do we
Speaker 1: find you at the moment?
Speaker 3: I am currently in Naples, Florida. I have I have
Speaker 3: a place here. I still have a place up in
Speaker 3: New York, where I'm from, but I spent a lot
Speaker 3: of time down here. Lovely, you've already met two of
Speaker 3: my fiatic.
Speaker 1: Delightful characters on screen.
Speaker 3: They're just.
Speaker 1: We can't wait for a cameo from the third.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've actually given me a great idea. But you
Speaker 2: need to bring my dog?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we should. We should ask you First of all, Mary,
Speaker 1: the reason why chatting to you is because there's been
Speaker 1: the fantastic news that you're going to be inducted into
Speaker 1: the International Tennis Hall of Fame in twenty twenty sixty
Speaker 1: m as in the contributed category. And I just wondered,
Speaker 1: how does that make you feel to hear that.
Speaker 3: It's it's look, I genuinely I never saw it coming.
Speaker 3: I really didn't. And there have been tremendous contributors in
Speaker 3: this category before. I'm glad there's another woman in there,
Speaker 3: but you know, Bud Collins, the late great Bud Collins
Speaker 3: is in there. Richard Evans still one of my favorite writers,
Speaker 3: as in they're glad as helm and you know it's there,
Speaker 3: on and on to be a to be a contributor
Speaker 3: and to go in the same summer that Roger Feeder's come.
Speaker 3: It's silly. It's silly, but I'm.
Speaker 1: Going, Yeah, I'm gonna go. It's phenomenal. It is the week,
Speaker 1: I think, the week before the US opening in August.
Speaker 1: So what are you most looking forward to to that?
Speaker 1: And the fact, yeah, it's at Newport in Rhode Island,
Speaker 1: the International Tennis Hall of Fame. They're a historic place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what are you most looking forward to?
Speaker 3: It is an absolutely remarkable place. It's it's so full
Speaker 3: of history and so full of charm. I've covered tournaments
Speaker 3: there and I've been able to visit there as well.
Speaker 3: The year that Nick Bolterterry went in, I introduced I
Speaker 3: introduced Nick and that was that was an awful lot
Speaker 3: of fun. In fact, Lindsay Davenport got in that same summer.
Speaker 3: It's actually so as you know, as being Aussie is
Speaker 3: you know how the Majors are now three week events.
Speaker 3: This fall on the day before the main draw starts
Speaker 3: at the US Open. So I'll actually be working Monday,
Speaker 3: Tuesday and Wednesday at the US Open. It's called Fan
Speaker 3: Week and it's and the mixed doubles. I'll be covering
Speaker 3: the mixed doubles. There's actually now the mixed doubles was
Speaker 3: such a big hit. I don't know how it went
Speaker 3: over over there, but it was such a big hit.
Speaker 3: Now there's a qualifying day for.
Speaker 1: Mixed doubleshow and.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of there's a lot of dough involved,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of cabbage to be had, and a
Speaker 3: lot of the players take it. They took it seriously
Speaker 3: last year. So I'll be going from there to Newport,
Speaker 3: which is about four hours away drive from New York,
Speaker 3: and then I'll be in Newport, which is a gorgeous place,
Speaker 3: for a couple of days, and then i'll be back
Speaker 3: for Night one of the US Open. I'm very much
Speaker 3: looking forward to it. The whole thing sounds exhausting now
Speaker 3: that I've said it out loud, but a lot of
Speaker 3: my friends are going to be there, and the place,
Speaker 3: as I'm sure you know, it's sold out in two minutes.
Speaker 3: That's obviously. Roger Fetter is that big a draw. And
Speaker 3: they've added three thousand seats because they can't fit everybody
Speaker 3: who wanted. Yeah, there's like one of the it's like
Speaker 3: an arena because they play a tennis from it there.
Speaker 3: Now they had to add three thousand seats because I
Speaker 3: mean Roger Rogers, I mean he's the first of the
Speaker 3: Big Three and the Big four. If you want to
Speaker 3: get in, it's going to be I think it's going
Speaker 3: to be spectacular.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, congratulations, Yeah, congratulations, Larry. I love an origin story,
Speaker 2: and I wondered if you could take us back and
Speaker 2: tell us about your start in tennis.
Speaker 3: I'm very, very lucky that my family we grew up
Speaker 3: in a beautiful little part of Queens, New York called Douglaston.
Speaker 3: We're from Douglas Matters, right on the water, right on
Speaker 3: Little Neck Bay, part of Long Island. Sound play anything
Speaker 3: you know. And back then when I was, you know,
Speaker 3: a little mini burger, I mean you could you just
Speaker 3: you leave in after breakfast and then your parents, your
Speaker 3: mom says, come home when the street lights come on.
Speaker 3: The Douglason Club was only a couple of blocks away
Speaker 3: from me, and I swam there and I started to
Speaker 3: play tennis there. My dad played, and then there was
Speaker 3: there's kid who lived right up the block named John McEnroe,
Speaker 3: followed by a kid brother, a couple of them, Mark,
Speaker 3: and then Patrick McEnroe, who's now the president of the
Speaker 3: International Tennis Hall of Fame. We all we all started
Speaker 3: playing there and it was. It was great. It was
Speaker 3: and you know, the US Open used to be played
Speaker 3: at Forest Hills, which was about twenty minutes away from Douglaston. Anyway,
Speaker 3: the story is that, you know, we watched the US
Speaker 3: Open as little kids, and John and Patrick McEnroe and
Speaker 3: my sister and a whole bunch of other kids from
Speaker 3: Douglas and we're ball kids there. Uh. I grew up
Speaker 3: around the US hope you know. Uh. In fact, my
Speaker 3: my mom used to let me skip the first couple
Speaker 3: of days of school every year. My sketchy academic record.
Speaker 3: But I mean growing up with John McEnroe. I'm two
Speaker 3: years older than John, but he I just followed him
Speaker 3: around even though I was the older kid. He started
Speaker 3: playing a lot. He started going, you know, entering tournaments,
Speaker 3: going to the Port Washington Tennis Academy, where we both
Speaker 3: had the great good luck of being coached by Harry Hopman,
Speaker 3: one of the most important people in my life. Mister
Speaker 3: Hotman was a tremendous force. In fact, when I when
Speaker 3: I was finishing high school, mister Hoptman decided to leave
Speaker 3: New York, uh, to move to his own academy, his
Speaker 3: own place in Florida, And he asked me if I
Speaker 3: want to go without consulting my parents. Yes, my mom
Speaker 3: is still waiting for me to go to college. I mean,
Speaker 3: my seventieth year on Earth, I just don't feel like
Speaker 3: going at this stage. Again, it was kind of lucky.
Speaker 3: It was a great time. Tennis was a big deal
Speaker 3: in the seventies in my country. I mean it was huge.
Speaker 3: A lot of things were going on, you know, Arthur
Speaker 3: ash was playing, Billy Jean King was changing sports, you know,
Speaker 3: Jimmy Connors and Chritsy and Martina and all that john
Speaker 3: and it was just a great time to be a
Speaker 3: little kid who likes tennis. So that was that's that's
Speaker 3: a very short version of my origin.
Speaker 2: What did you most love about I mean, it sounds
Speaker 2: like so many things, but what did you most love
Speaker 2: about tennis?
Speaker 3: Honestly, I was a pretty good athlete all around, and
Speaker 3: I followed the seasons like little kids do. Tennis was
Speaker 3: the one sport I really I was really bad.
Speaker 2: At relate to that, but I never got better.
Speaker 3: And again fortunately, I mean, you know, tennis isn't you know,
Speaker 3: It's not a pickup sport, you know, you know, it's
Speaker 3: not like basketball or soccer or football where you just
Speaker 3: watch what the other kids do and you try to,
Speaker 3: you know, play along. I mean, you have to be
Speaker 3: given strokes, you have to be given grips, you have
Speaker 3: to and then when you get better, you have to
Speaker 3: be given strategy tactics, you know. And but again I
Speaker 3: was very lucky that at our crazy little club there
Speaker 3: was a very good tennis teacher. His name is Dan Dwyer,
Speaker 3: and I just watched him. I watched him teach, and
Speaker 3: you know, he would teach these ladies who kind of sucked,
Speaker 3: you know, but so he'd be feeding. There were no rallies,
Speaker 3: and I kept I kept feeding his basket of balls
Speaker 3: so that I could listen to him coach. And in fact,
Speaker 3: John McEnroe, John knew Dan Dwyer as well. Dan, you know,
Speaker 3: had a look at John's game too. So I think
Speaker 3: I liked it because I really wanted to be good
Speaker 3: at it. And I was never honestly, genuinely this is
Speaker 3: not false modesty. I was never that good. But in
Speaker 3: the time I played, and it was only for a
Speaker 3: couple of seasons, you could still kind of you could
Speaker 3: still play like I was. I never got higher than
Speaker 3: thirty three in the world.
Speaker 1: Guys, that's pretty good, Mary, And we're going to come
Speaker 1: to that.
Speaker 3: What I'm saying. What I'm saying is I mean I
Speaker 3: wouldn't breathe near tennis player like my My game would
Speaker 3: never have held up had I played at a different time.
Speaker 3: Everybody now is so much better. The quality is so
Speaker 3: much better. But I loved it. I mean, I still
Speaker 3: love it. I still think it's I like all rackets sports. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I think it's a beautiful tool. You know, I'm pretty
Speaker 3: good at ping pong. I'm not sure that really another
Speaker 3: story for perhaps, no, I mean anything squash and anything. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Interesting, Yeah, that's fantastic. You are getting inducted to the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame in your role as a contributor for
Speaker 1: your broadcasting career, but you are a Grand Slam champion.
Speaker 1: You won Roland Garris Mixed in nineteen seventy seven with
Speaker 1: John McEnroe, and you were only twenty and I think
Speaker 1: he was eighteen. How did you guys pull that off
Speaker 1: when you were so young? I'm assuming was that your
Speaker 1: first tournament together?
Speaker 3: It was, I mean, obviously we had played with each other,
Speaker 3: you know, and we drilled together, but we had never
Speaker 3: played in any kind of a formal tournament together. I
Speaker 3: was a rookie. There's a nineteen seventy seven I was
Speaker 3: twenty year right. John was there on behalf of the
Speaker 3: United States Tennis Association. He was to play in the
Speaker 3: French Open Juniors and Wimbledon Juniors. And he got a
Speaker 3: stipend from five hundred bucks from them. That's it. That
Speaker 3: was supposed to the last wow, like six weeks in
Speaker 3: your so neither one of us had we you know,
Speaker 3: we had no money. Uh we had John. It was
Speaker 3: during the World Team Tennis days, so a lot of
Speaker 3: professional players weren't allowed to play the French Open on
Speaker 3: you two are too young to remember all that, but
Speaker 3: it allowed us to get in. There was a sign
Speaker 3: up sheet for mixed doubles, and yeah, let's sign up.
Speaker 3: And John looked at the list. This is this is
Speaker 3: John McEnroe. This won't support He looked at the list
Speaker 3: of players who had already signed up for the mix
Speaker 3: and he said, oh, man, I mean we should win
Speaker 3: this thing. What are you talking about? Like I saw,
Speaker 3: you know, And anyway, and then we picked our way
Speaker 3: through and we ended up winning the winning the thing.
Speaker 3: It was John's first major. It was my last major.
Speaker 3: Uh you know, I mean John was a remarkable a
Speaker 3: remarkable doubles player. Even then. He had such a sense
Speaker 3: of the court and the angles he could he saw,
Speaker 3: He saw rallies and angles that nobody else could see,
Speaker 3: even when he was just a little kid. And then
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks later, of course, he got himself
Speaker 3: to the semis of Wimbledon, and that's where people really
Speaker 3: his name wasn't made when he won the mixed with me,
Speaker 3: I felt.
Speaker 2: That way he definitely had.
Speaker 3: And then people really wanted to know who these guy was.
Speaker 1: But I and you do you do downplay your career,
Speaker 1: But yes, you are a major champion. You got to
Speaker 1: thirty three in the world in singles, you made the
Speaker 1: third round of singles at Wimbledon, and you've also made
Speaker 1: quarterfinals if women's doubles, I think at the US Open
Speaker 1: as well. So when you that isn't that is an
Speaker 1: excellent career, what with all that time and space between it. Now,
Speaker 1: how do you honestly reflect on your on the playing
Speaker 1: career side of your tennis journey?
Speaker 3: My hand to God, Matt, I'm being honest. I loved it.
Speaker 3: I loved it, but I had my knees were terrible.
Speaker 3: I was still in high school, and again my mom
Speaker 3: wanted me to I had some scholarship offers tennis scholarship
Speaker 3: offers from some good schools, but you know, hardcore tennis.
Speaker 3: For four years, I knew I'd never get a shot
Speaker 3: i'd be blown out my knees. You know. Right away,
Speaker 3: I knew I'd never get a shot to play professionally,
Speaker 3: and it's really what I wanted to do, even though
Speaker 3: again there was a ceiling and I was very aware
Speaker 3: of it. And guys, if you grow up with John McEnroe,
Speaker 3: you know, from the time you're ten years old, you
Speaker 3: know how good you aren't. And I was fine with that.
Speaker 3: It made me work harder. I loved practicing. I loved
Speaker 3: watching matches, you know. Mister Hotman when he used to rain,
Speaker 3: mister Hutmad would take out his whole film projector men,
Speaker 3: black and white movies of when he was a Davis
Speaker 3: Cup captain, and he would tell us what ema was
Speaker 3: like and what labor was like. In Fred Staally, who
Speaker 3: I got to work with. I mean, I loved every
Speaker 3: bit of it. But and again I knew I had
Speaker 3: a very small window, so I played everywhere. I wanted
Speaker 3: to also see the world, you know, So I played
Speaker 3: as much as I could until you know, I was
Speaker 3: riding on rims and then I had to stop.
Speaker 1: That's fair.
Speaker 2: Wow, Your career is listed as nineteen seventy seven to
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty What was it like competing sort of in
Speaker 2: that time on the Tennis Tour sort of the WTA
Speaker 2: was quite new, it was. It felt like a bit
Speaker 2: of a transition.
Speaker 3: Oh so. And again I just feel like the time
Speaker 3: and the space where I actually got to play professional
Speaker 3: tennis was so special. You know, there was something called
Speaker 3: on futures, you know, where you make your way up
Speaker 3: into the bigs, you know, the Big Leagues was Virginia
Speaker 3: Slims at the time, and I remember the first time
Speaker 3: I qualified. You get two weeks, you know, and then
Speaker 3: you know after that if you lose earlier. Back down
Speaker 3: in the miners, I remember walking into the locker room
Speaker 3: the first time I ever got there, and it was
Speaker 3: Chris Evert, Rosie Cassals, Billy j and King Virginiu Wade.
Speaker 3: I mean these people I've idolized, just absolutely. And there
Speaker 3: was and again, when you're playing in the miners, you're
Speaker 3: really you're just you're playing at you know, country clubs.
Speaker 3: In the locker room, everything is terrible. This place was
Speaker 3: all tricked out and there was free food. There were
Speaker 3: practice balls like a thing night, and Chrissy was I'll
Speaker 3: never forget that. There was a plate of like cut
Speaker 3: up cheese, and then Chrissy said, Hi, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: want a piece of cheese? And I said, oh my god,
Speaker 3: christ if I wanted cheese, I love it. Yeah, it was,
Speaker 3: it was. And you know what's really something is because
Speaker 3: I've been hanging around the game so long, these Chrissy, Martina, Pamshriver,
Speaker 3: Billy g these, there's there's some of my very best friends.
Speaker 3: I'm very, very lucky. So that was my experience. I
Speaker 3: was overwhelmed. The last year I played, I'd had three
Speaker 3: top twenty wins. I thought, you know, I thought, you know,
Speaker 3: if I could ever get into the top twenty, you know,
Speaker 3: that would be that would be great for me. That
Speaker 3: would have been a great thing. But they my knees
Speaker 3: cracked out of wimbled. In nineteen eighty that was the
Speaker 3: last time I played first one real quick. It's honestly,
Speaker 3: I don't regret. I don't regret a thing I think
Speaker 3: I've been. I think I've been blessed. It's been for me,
Speaker 3: it's been magical.
Speaker 1: One thing you said about tennis's that have got to
Speaker 1: take you all over the world, and you want to
Speaker 1: to take that opportunity with both hands. But we've looked
Speaker 1: at your playing record, and it doesn't seem you ever
Speaker 1: played at the Australian Open well.
Speaker 3: Because it used to be played around Christmas, and you know,
Speaker 3: and I didn't think I was really good enough to
Speaker 3: schlep all the way to Australia and you know, and survived,
Speaker 3: you know, a couple of weeks there. I didn't think
Speaker 3: I could afford it. Really it's and I never felt
Speaker 3: like I was broke. I just didn't have any money.
Speaker 3: But I will tell you, I'll tell you a story.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you a story. My kid's sister, Gina, we
Speaker 3: all used to, you know, hang out. And Gina went
Speaker 3: to this was a New Year's Eve party and John
Speaker 3: McEnroe was already playing very good tennis. So Gina went
Speaker 3: with him and got really drunk, I mean just barfing
Speaker 3: all over the place and John and she had gone
Speaker 3: with John. So John dropped Gina off at my parents'
Speaker 3: house and then like took off, made sure she wasn't
Speaker 3: gonna die, but then he took off. Anyway. My mom
Speaker 3: the next morning, where is he? Where is that John?
Speaker 3: You know? And Gina said, he's flying to Australia. He
Speaker 3: had to leave the continent. He was the Wrath of
Speaker 3: Terry Carilla. I'm sorry. I've been able to call tennis
Speaker 3: mansions that the Australian Open many times, and I've always
Speaker 3: loved that tournament, but no, I never got to play.
Speaker 1: So what So when did you first come and what
Speaker 1: did you think of it when you first made the trip?
Speaker 3: Oh? Did I come? I think I came. H I
Speaker 3: actually was there for Kuyag I think I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: which I loved. I loved and when I heard it
Speaker 3: was moving and it was going to be on hardcorets. God,
Speaker 3: damn it, that's who's gonna Yeah, that sounds like a
Speaker 3: terror idea. And of course it's one of the great
Speaker 3: it's one of the best sporting events in the world.
Speaker 3: In the end.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it worked on around US Open, did it too?
Speaker 3: I guess you guys, you're masked up quickly and you
Speaker 3: got it done. Yeah. So yeah, I don't remember. I
Speaker 3: mean I remember some great you know, obviously, some great
Speaker 3: Australian Opens, and I've been watching them all for all
Speaker 3: these years at four o'clock in the morning here. But
Speaker 3: uh no, it's a it's a great I wish I
Speaker 3: had played it. I wish I had played it. I
Speaker 3: think I would have loved the.
Speaker 2: Experience you did make the transition into tennis commentary or broadcasting.
Speaker 2: What what were you most kind of captivated by in
Speaker 2: that career.
Speaker 3: You know, I was in between knee operations. I had
Speaker 3: four knee operations. In between knee operations, I taught tennis
Speaker 3: for mister Hoppon. So I was spending a lot of
Speaker 3: time in Florida, and I was trying to figure out
Speaker 3: what the hell I was going to do. I was
Speaker 3: thinking about going to film school because I love film,
Speaker 3: and I've been lucky enough to do a bunch of
Speaker 3: documentaries have meant a lodge to me. I was just
Speaker 3: trying to figure out what to do, and I luckily
Speaker 3: some guy who's still a friend of mine, Mark Stillberg,
Speaker 3: he heard me do some pickup commentary at Madison Square
Speaker 3: Garden the end of nineteen seventy nine, the Avon Championships.
Speaker 3: He happened to hear me call a match and it
Speaker 3: was just a pickup. I had talked about the upcoming match.
Speaker 3: It was a late at night match, Tracy Austin against
Speaker 3: Von Guligan, and all the people who you wanted to
Speaker 3: interview in between matches had already left. It was late
Speaker 3: at night, I was still around. I started talking about
Speaker 3: what a great match this is going to be and why,
Speaker 3: and so I got invited up into the booth and
Speaker 3: that was the first time I ever did it. And frankly,
Speaker 3: I'd already blown the SuDS off a couple of beers.
Speaker 3: So I was even who so that I normally am.
Speaker 3: But it was fun, but it was not It was
Speaker 3: not a career. I mean, I was still playing anyway.
Speaker 3: After I lost in forty one minutes in the first
Speaker 3: round of Wimbledon that that next summer. A guy who's
Speaker 3: producing tennis women's tennis for the first time remembered hearing
Speaker 3: me that one night, and he asked me if I
Speaker 3: if I wanted to try it. And that was about
Speaker 3: forty seven years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, forty seven years and many awards. There was a
Speaker 2: large incredible achievements later. I'm sure that you always drew
Speaker 2: on your actual playing career in your broadcasting, but I
Speaker 2: was wondering, are there any sort of parallels between preparing
Speaker 2: for a big match and actually broadcasting one calling one?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I again, I'm a worker. I was
Speaker 3: never I mean, I was never gifted. You know, the
Speaker 3: way so many professional tennis players are so but I
Speaker 3: loved I loved watching it, studying it, preparing for it.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm very I'm a nerd, is what. I'm
Speaker 3: very nerdy. I like I like to prepare, yes, I
Speaker 3: mean it's that's the only time I feel comfortable is
Speaker 3: when I know going in that I've I've done the
Speaker 3: I've done the work, and then that The thing about
Speaker 3: it is what I like so much about calling matches
Speaker 3: is I know, like I sit next to Jim Currier
Speaker 3: and Lindy Davenport and John McEnroe, I all these remarkable
Speaker 3: players whose entire careers I called. I think I have
Speaker 3: a good sense of what how to get the most
Speaker 3: out of them, you know what I mean, Like, how
Speaker 3: do you draw it out of them? What do they
Speaker 3: like to talk about? What do they what do they
Speaker 3: know that there's no chance? I know, you know. And
Speaker 3: now with all the analytics and the data and all
Speaker 3: that stuff, it's become even more of that, and I
Speaker 3: like having the pros explain things to me. I found
Speaker 3: when I was I've called a lot of matches with
Speaker 3: John McEnroe over the years, and it got to a
Speaker 3: point where I realized he was watching the player who
Speaker 3: was he was describing the player who was winning and why,
Speaker 3: and I was I tend to be watching the other
Speaker 3: side of the net, like I know why that dude
Speaker 3: is going down. So, I mean the similarities again, it's
Speaker 3: all about I think it's all about knowing that you're
Speaker 3: you're going in having worked for it, you know, earning it,
Speaker 3: earning the spot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the most memorable match or moment that you've
Speaker 1: been in the booth for. That's a hard question. I
Speaker 1: know it because your career has gone a long time.
Speaker 1: But I mean, is there one that stands out?
Speaker 3: I'm so elderly what it was? What was very very special? Uh?
Speaker 3: And anybody who anybody who worked on the ninety nine
Speaker 3: I'm sorry the nineteen ninety one US opened the Jimmy run. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean I got to I got to be a
Speaker 3: part of that and that, I mean it still makes
Speaker 3: me smile. Uh. It's and and Brett Connors, Jimmy's kid,
Speaker 3: uh now is one of the producers at Tennis Channel,
Speaker 3: and he's a He turned out to be a really
Speaker 3: good kid. I mean, that was very special. Look, so many,
Speaker 3: so many I loved calling the twenty four Olympics, that
Speaker 3: final with Djokovic chan Al Karez. That is absolutely one
Speaker 3: of the to my mind, one of the best two set,
Speaker 3: straight set matches I've ever called. I mean, I did, look,
Speaker 3: I did, I did, I did, Groff and Stellas, Chrissy Martinez,
Speaker 3: Samprus Agacy, you right up to now. So, I mean
Speaker 3: usually usually the matches that stick with me are the
Speaker 3: ones where I jump out of my seat about forty times,
Speaker 3: you know, which I which I tend to do. I'm
Speaker 3: flat in my arms and going crazy. And I've been very,
Speaker 3: very blessed, very blessed.
Speaker 2: Through your career. You have You've set an example, and
Speaker 2: in some ways you've opened the door for a lot
Speaker 2: of women in broadcasting. Is that something that is proud
Speaker 2: for you?
Speaker 1: Gives you pride?
Speaker 3: If that's true, It's something I'd be I'm most proud of,
Speaker 3: you know. I was. I learned at the Neo Billy
Speaker 3: Jean King. I got to know Billy. You know, she
Speaker 3: was living in New York when and I'm a New
Speaker 3: Yorker and I got to know her from even I
Speaker 3: think even before I turned pro, I would I would
Speaker 3: be around Billy, I practice with her, and you know
Speaker 3: she I learned so much from her, like what she
Speaker 3: what mattered to her, you know what, what she felt
Speaker 3: the planet should be like as it spins around sun. Uh.
Speaker 3: And she always I think she she she was always
Speaker 3: pushing me, you know, and saying, no, this is important.
Speaker 3: There have been times over the many years I've been
Speaker 3: I've been announcing where I would go up to Billy
Speaker 3: and say, you are not going to believe this. They
Speaker 3: are not going to let me call that man's match.
Speaker 3: I'd bark. I'd complain to her, this just this isn't fair,
Speaker 3: this isn't and I would like, I'd say, I just
Speaker 3: can't do it, you know, I just can't deal with
Speaker 3: the politics of this. And and she'd say, you can't
Speaker 3: leave the building. You can't leave the building and throw
Speaker 3: rocks at the windows. You've got to stay in there.
Speaker 3: More than once Billy, Billy Jean King convinced me that
Speaker 3: it mattered that I hang around it and keep trying.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that, uh, if it's true, and I don't
Speaker 3: know how true it is. I think there are a
Speaker 3: lot more women even behind the scenes now, you know,
Speaker 3: in the production trucks and you know, like not just
Speaker 3: on the air, but off the air, it's opened up
Speaker 3: a lot, I think, I mean, I certainly, I think
Speaker 3: I slips streamed through that. I'm not sure I had
Speaker 3: anything to do with it, but I feel like I
Speaker 3: was there for the good times. You know, I've been
Speaker 3: very lucky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's wonderful to hear you mentioned that you still
Speaker 1: have it. And I read a lot of Bulg McEnroe,
Speaker 1: Sam Prasagasy, graft sellas how and you're still you're in
Speaker 1: the sport. Now, how does this current generation and tennis
Speaker 1: now stack up.
Speaker 3: Oh, they're right up there, Matt, they are right up there.
Speaker 3: The quality of tennis. I mean they're playing at a
Speaker 3: different it's a different plane as well. It's a different
Speaker 3: level physically in terms of coaching again, in terms of
Speaker 3: the analytics and stream technology, racket technology, they're doing things,
Speaker 3: and that's that's. Look. I've covered seventeen Olympics. I mean
Speaker 3: through the years, you see just how much better and
Speaker 3: every how better. They're better trained, they're better coached, you know,
Speaker 3: they they pace themselves better, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: I mean, Alcaaz Center, I think they're going to be
Speaker 3: around for a long time, and I'm very happy for that.
Speaker 3: I mean Djokovic. I do believe that Novak has been
Speaker 3: the greatest. I have no problem saying he's the greatest
Speaker 3: of all time. So yeah, and the women too, I mean,
Speaker 3: Sabalanca is really she's really upped her game in so
Speaker 3: many important ways. And Siantek now is trying to she's
Speaker 3: lost her footing and she's she looks hectic out there
Speaker 3: and she's trying to figure out a way to get back.
Speaker 3: I'm sure she'll be happy that clays underneath her feet. Yeah,
Speaker 3: as a as we are speaking, you know, they're just
Speaker 3: it's remarkable. I mean, it's and it's fun. Coco is
Speaker 3: just a genuine Coco Golf is a genuinely good person,
Speaker 3: very solid, very solid citizen. You know, they're just you guys.
Speaker 3: You guys know how good it's gotten. I'm very aware
Speaker 3: of of how high the quality is these days. I'm
Speaker 3: glad it's I'm glad it's that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Tennis is in very good hands. Let's say, yeah, yeah, Mary,
Speaker 2: we would love to talk to you all day, but
Speaker 2: unfortunately time is against us. But I do have one
Speaker 2: last question for you. Tennis has taken you around the
Speaker 2: world and to the top of the to the top
Speaker 2: of your game in your career. Do you ever stop
Speaker 2: and think about what this sport has given you in
Speaker 2: your life?
Speaker 3: It's given me everything. It's given me. It has shaped
Speaker 3: and formed my entire life. I have no doubt about it.
Speaker 3: I again, to find something that you love so young
Speaker 3: and to be passionate about that one thing, I mean
Speaker 3: and nothing else. You know, people say, oh, you sacrifice
Speaker 3: your childhood. I didn't sacrifice a damn thing. I did
Speaker 3: exactly what I wanted to do with the people I
Speaker 3: wanted to do it with, you know. I mean, it
Speaker 3: meant the world to me that that I got to
Speaker 3: that Tennis became, you know, my identity in so many
Speaker 3: important ways. I mean, it's done. It's done. And I
Speaker 3: was at some dinner with Serena Williams. I was m
Speaker 3: seeing it and she was there and I said to her,
Speaker 3: you know, thank you for putting my children through college.
Speaker 3: You know, that's oh wife. That is how how much
Speaker 3: I understand that this sport has given me. And just
Speaker 3: in terms of everything I feel like, you know, I
Speaker 3: try to live up to Billy Jean King. I try
Speaker 3: to live up to sport. You know, I tried to.
Speaker 3: It's been a very good compass. I think for me,
Speaker 3: you know, ah, it's my load star, you know, so
Speaker 3: I guess that's my answer.
Speaker 1: Well, tennis has given you an enormous amount, but you've
Speaker 1: also given an enormous amount to the sport and we're
Speaker 1: both so proud of you that you're getting acknowledged with
Speaker 1: that for the International Tennis Hall of Fame induction this year.
Speaker 1: And thank you so much for this chat. It was
Speaker 1: fantastic to talk to you. It was great, amazing, Thank
Speaker 1: you Mary.
Speaker 2: Well, Matt, doesn't that make you want to book your
Speaker 2: ticket to Newport?
Speaker 1: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: It does.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a shame there's no tickets available. We've done over
Speaker 2: one hundred interviews for the sit Down and I don't
Speaker 2: think I've ever laughed as much.
Speaker 1: Absolutely agreed. It was an honor to chat to Mary.
Speaker 1: And we'll be back next week with another episode of
Speaker 1: the sit Down. Please subscribe so you never miss an
Speaker 1: episode when it lands in your fee, and if you
Speaker 1: could leave us a rating and a review, we'd love
Speaker 1: that too. We'll see you next week, vib see them,
Speaker 1: Matte