9102030219
DETROIT FREE PRESS
910904
Wednesday, September 04, 1991
METRO EDITION
1D
MITCH ALBOM
SEE ALSO METRO FINAL EDITION PAGE 1D
Copyright (c) 1991, Detroit Free Press
MONICA, CAN WE TALK? WAIT DO WE HAVE TO?
NEW YORK -- That does it. I am drafting a petition to the Womens Tennis
Association: No more press conferences for girls under 18. Let them play. Let
them shower. Let them go home to their Sting records.
But keep them away from the microphone. Really. It's for the best. And I
have been thinking about this for a while, ever since Steffi Graf mumbled
through her first few years, and then Gabriela Sabatini mumbled through her
first few years, and then Jennifer Capriati laid about 400,000 "you knows" in
a single sentence.
But what really pushed me over the edge was Tuesday, when Monica Seles,
17, came into the interview room after destroying yet another opponent, Gigi
Fernandez, in about the time it takes to make an omelet.
Seles, as you know, has been quite a little pistol in her brief career.
The first thing anyone remembers her saying is "UNNNNYYEEEEE," which she
shrieked whenever she hit a ball. Opponents were so distracted, they wanted to
put a sock in her mouth.
The next sound people remember is her giggling during interviews, about
every other word, which made her sound -- and you have to use your imagination
here -- like Woody Woodpecker on helium. "Well, I -- hehehehehehe -- think I
-- " Reporters wanted to put a sock in her mouth.
This summer was Seles' silent period, when, ranked No. 1 in the world, she
mysteriously disappeared and pulled out of Wimbledon. The official
explanation was an injury. Others blamed, in no special order: 1) fatigue, 2)
pregnancy, 3) a love affair with Donald Trump, 4) publicity stunt. When she
finally emerged, weeks later at a press conference, reporters watched Seles
breeze in like a movie star, holding a little dog that was yapping like
something out of a Zsa Zsa Gabor kennel.
They wanted to put a sock in the dog's mouth.
Talk about talking fast, y'know?
Now comes the U.S. Open, where young Seles has already reached the
semifinals. She could win the whole thing. So I must make my case:
This year, the Open, in an effort to increase accuracy, has hired a court
reporter to take down everything players say during post-match press
conferences. It's a good idea. The guy taps away on a stenographer machine,
like something out of "The Verdict," and he gets every "yeah," every "um."
And then along comes Seles.
And the stenographer turns white.
I don't want to say Seles talks fast. I will say that, after her, the guy
from the Federal Express commercial makes perfect sense. The big problem --
besides her favorite subjects being clothes, Madonna and Alec Baldwin -- is
that Seles, like most teens, forgets to come up for air between sentences.
Example: Someone asked her Tuesday about equal prize money for women and
men. She said:
"I think a lot of times when you watch men's tennis and they go into five
sets and you are up to here with them, 6-1, 6-1, you are sitting there and
just waiting and the point, there are no points, I mean, he serves an ace and
that is it, he serves, this is it, while in women's tennis not everybody is
going to finish him with a big serve."
You got that?
How about when they asked if other players made comments about her
Wimbledon controversy?
"To me personally, nobody, really even from the top players and from the
lower-ranked players, you know we don't talk, just say hi, I just walked by
her and she walks by me."
I am not making this up. Following Seles in conversation is like
following a bumble bee. The poor court reporter, a nice guy named Peter Paul
Balestrieri, was having a whale of a time with the question about Steffi
Graf:
Seles: "Me and Steffi don't sit down much, we just say hi, how are you,
and I ask her -- I say congratulations for Wimbledon, she says congratulations
for the French, and afterwards, you know, but you know, the thing that --
it's not that -- we don't hate each other, I mean, we have respect but we are
not -- I am not going to ask her about her personal life, and she's not going
to ask about mine."
Of course not. She'd be gone for days.
She's not a stenographer's type
After Seles finished her press conference, I approached Mr. Balestrieri,
who was shaking his hands out, trying to get the blood back to his fingers.
"Is she the fastest talker on the tour?" I asked.
"Oh, easily," he said, sounding fatigued.
"Do you know how fast she talks?"
"Over 300 words a minute."
"You're kidding."
"No. I won the New York State Court reporters competition by typing 280
words a minute. And she's much faster than that. She's unbelievable. She's the
fastest person I've ever listened to. She's really -- "
I wanted to talk more, but he passed out.
All of which leads me to my point: Do we really need to hear three hundred
words a minute from Monica Seles? The girl just got her driver's license, for
Pete's sake. How much wisdom can she impart? Come on. Let her be a kid. Let
her have fun. Let her play tennis, win tons of money, then go home and buy her
own high school if she wants. But enough with the microphones. At least wait
until she's 18. Then she can tell us all about Alec Baldwin, and her newest
outfit, and how much she adores Madonna. And we can tell her what happened
to the stenographer.
COLUMN; HUMOR; YOUTH; TENNIS; MONICA SELES