Meet the Professionals - Blair Henley
In this episode of Ground Pass, hosts Anastasia and Nick welcome Blair Henley, a prominent figure in tennis media. They discuss Blair's journey from aspiring tennis player to media professional, her experiences in on-court hosting, and the importance of connecting casual fans with the sport. The conversation touches on the challenges of balancing a career in tennis media with family life, the significance of smaller tournaments, and the evolving landscape of tennis, including the impact of pickleball. Blair shares insights on emerging talents in the sport and offers advice for those looking to break into tennis media.
transcript
Anastasia (00:00)
Welcome, Ground Passers, to another episode of Ground Pass. And this is a special episode. Welcome to our Meet the Professionals series. You have already heard our Meet the Players series. Like we've talked to Harri Heliovaara we talked to Mattia Bellucci last year, and now we're adding a new one. Meet the Professionals. Meet the people who don't necessarily play on court.
but might also be on court as well. But Nick, you're here. Hi, Nick.
Nick (00:33)
Hi, I'm not that person, by the way. And although having said that you're saying that like, they don't necessarily play on court, I think the definition of play might need to be expanded for our guest.
Blair (00:35)
Okay.
Anastasia (00:45)
yes, yes, that
is correct. But I am so excited to welcome to Groundpass Blair Henley. Hello, Blair.
Blair (00:55)
Hi guys! I'm so excited to be here and congrats on all the stuff you guys have done this year and listen we need more people covering tennis and everyone has sort of a unique angle and a unique way to do it so I I love it. Happy to be here.
Anastasia (01:13)
Awesome, great. I mean, you know, our podcast, we're mostly about the casual fan, the person getting into it. But I think what happens when you get into a new sport and you're super excited about it, sometimes you want to be a part of it. Sometimes you want to join the organizations or somehow be a part or work in that thing. And what we've come across is,
people who are like, how do I get into tennis? And I'm not necessarily a player, you know, I'm, you know, maybe older and like not really wanting to get into playing tennis, but what else can I do in tennis? And that is where Blair, you come in. So how about a little quick introduction as to who you are and what you do.
Blair (02:00)
Well, I'll be honest, I sweat a little bit when people are like, what do you do? Because I, there is really not a job title that succinctly ties it all up in a nice little bow. But I usually tell people while I work in tennis media and often I'm holding a microphone. So it's sort of the meat and potatoes of my job is the on court hosting or the on court emceeing or.
presenting as I would say if I lived in Europe. So often I am the person that you hear introducing players out onto the court, reading their bios while they're warming up, doing the post-match interviews after it's over. But I have also been so fortunate to work behind the scenes as well. I started off as a tennis writer, so I was in the media rooms, I was in the interview rooms. I thoroughly enjoyed that.
And I've also done a lot on the social media side of things, some on the producing side of things for broadcast. So again, it's one of the great things about tennis is that it's small enough that you often, like once you sort of get your foot in the door, you have a chance to try out a bunch of different things. So that is a plus. It does not help me explain to anyone what I do. Like I usually lose people when I say tennis, that they're like, wait, what? You work in professional tennis? That's a thing.
Anastasia (03:09)
Yeah.
Blair (03:20)
But if we get past that point, yeah, that's exactly right. Which by the way, I love that you are looking to connect with the casual fan because we need more of those. We know who the hardcore fans are. We are probably among them, but making tennis friendly to somebody who wants to give it a shot, wants to see what tennis is all about. And they know Zendaya is going to watch tennis and what could it mean?
Nick (03:20)
You should not have that problem with our audience.
Anastasia (03:36)
Yeah.
Blair (03:47)
for them to go watch tennis. I think that that is increasingly important for the sport.
Anastasia (03:53)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, when you were talking about your sort of like tagline bio, I remember even when I was like trying to put up questions and like give you a title, I was like, but she kind of does a lot. I don't know. I don't know what to put here. It is a good thing.
Blair (04:06)
It's a good thing. But yeah, it's real
confusing if somebody asks you to like distill it down.
Anastasia (04:12)
Yeah. Well, let's back up a little bit and start from the beginning. When you were a little girl, just coming, you know, just starting out, what did you, what, what is your earliest memory of what you wanted to do when you grew up?
Blair (04:27)
I remember making lists when I was young about what I wanted to do and near the top of my list consistently, I would say for most of my childhood, well, until I was old enough to realize that maybe one of these is perhaps not in the cards for me, but I wanted to be a Broadway star. I wanted to be on Broadway. Do I have a voice for Broadway? No, I sure don't, but that is what I wanted.
to do, either that or be a meteorologist. So even from an early age, I definitely liked the idea of being in front of people, of performing. I was in every school play that I could be in up until high school when it became harder because I played tennis also competitively and so it was harder to sort of balance both of those. But that's what I wanted to do, either a meteorologist or a Broadway star.
And that didn't quite happen for me, but you know what? In my own little way, maybe I could convince myself that one of those stadiums is a stage.
Nick (05:28)
I mean, that would kind of work. Yeah, I was gonna say that kind of works. I mean, let's face it, you're obviously, you're out there, you're kind of performing because you're trying to engage a crowd in what you're doing when you're doing your on-court emceeing. And as for meteorology, let's face it, all of us tennis fans, it's an outdoor sport. We're all amateur meteorologists. We're all checking our phone apps. If I could tell you now, if I was working behind the scenes at tennis tournament, I'd be asking everyone if they know what's happening with the rain.
Anastasia (05:28)
It's almost like you combined the two a little bit.
Blair (05:53)
Yes.
Anastasia (05:55)
Yeah.
Blair (05:57)
100%. You haven't lived until you've worked for US Open. And I am actually on the email distribution list from the weather experts that are on staff during the US Open. It's like weather update at 4.07 PM. In 10 minutes, we're expecting, you know, a line of showers and then it will clear up. I mean, it is intense how in the weeds you get in the weather. So yes, Nick.
Thank you. I hadn't thought about this in quite some time. So thank you for making me realize that I'm truly living my dreams.
Anastasia (06:26)
You are, you are. You mentioned briefly there that you used to play tennis. So what was your first introduction to tennis?
Blair (06:35)
Mm-hmm.
I sort of had a little bit of a cheat code. My dad is a teaching pro at a club, still is to this day. He's the director at a club in Florida. And so I grew up in the tennis shop. I had, you know, all the pros who worked for my dad. were nice enough to take me out onto the court. And my dad, you know, anytime he had free time, I would go out and play with him. So I, from a young age, was like, I like this. I want to be good at this.
Anastasia (06:46)
Mm.
Blair (07:01)
And that was sort of the only sport that I played. My brothers went on to sort of be more on the golfing side of things, or at least my middle brother did. But I was like, why would I play any other sport? I like this and I want to be great at this. And I had the option to just hang out at the courts all day, which was pretty incredible.
Nick (07:18)
was the moment where like, obviously you want to go and you kept on playing. I mean, do you still play now? Did you ever have dreams of going pro?
Blair (07:28)
Actually, yes, I I guys I don't know if you know this about me, but I have one time in my life I was ranked like 700 and something in the world in doubles I did have WTA points at one point. I played
Nick (07:36)
Okay.
Anastasia (07:39)
Okay.
Blair (07:44)
sort of, you know, at the time we called them 10,000s. They were sort of the lowest level ITF events. So during the summers, I played college tennis at Rice University in Houston, Texas. And during the summers, we would, you know, a group of us would sort of go drive from tournament to tournament in the States and play professional events. And it wasn't until after I graduated, I played one more summer of tennis after I graduated. And I just had to make the decision like, do I want to go for this?
Do I not? And realistically, I just was thinking, do I have what it takes to be a top hundred player? And the answer was unlikely. And if there was any chance of that, I was gonna need to hire a coach, which is a ton of money. I don't know if you guys are plugged into what Karu Sell is doing over at his channel, but he just did a breakdown.
Anastasia (08:33)
Yes, it's so great.
Blair (08:36)
of his finances for the year. He's ranked just outside the top 250 in the world. And essentially you're hemorrhaging money. I just, to me, was not, I'm risk averse in general. And to me, that was a big risk to pony up. And I probably would have to be teaching on the side to make that money. And how does that impact how good you can be actually playing? Because believe me, you, standing there feeding like this isn't so great for your actual tennis game.
Anastasia (08:42)
Yeah.
Blair (09:04)
So I had to make that call and decided to head off into the real world instead.
Anastasia (09:12)
So what did that mean? so you, you know, I mean, did you, when you say real words, did you head off to Broadway? Or did you go into TV to try and be meteorologist? Like, what was that transition from college, I'm not gonna play tennis, to almost now? How did that work?
Blair (09:23)
Yeah.
It wasn't particularly easy. I was in search of the proverbial passion that if you find it, you'll never work a day in your life. That's what I was looking for. I didn't know what that was. I loved tennis and was like, don't know, am going to like being an investment banker? I was an economics major. Rice is very much a science and engineering school. didn't have
Anastasia (09:50)
Mm-hmm.
Blair (09:56)
a lot of sort of communications, journalism like that, those weren't options for me. And so, you know, I'm like, well, what do I do now? And I really did struggle to kind of figure out what my path was, what I could be passionate about, passionate about, what I could wake up every day and think this is the best. I'm so excited to do what I'm doing. In hindsight, I would probably tell somebody coming out of school that maybe that is overrated.
finding your passion. I feel like that sounds so terrible, but in some ways, your job can facilitate your other passions in life. Find a job that you think is fine enough, that you're not gonna be miserable doing every day, and your job can be sort of a gateway to do the things that you're passionate about, that you might not be able to find something that interlocks so specifically with that thing that is your dream and that you've
you know, you've always thought about pursuing. So anyway, that's a total aside, but I sort of started off teaching tennis because I was thinking, okay, maybe, you know, I briefly had a job as a pharmaceutical salesperson. That was not my calling. It was a great, the paycheck was nice, but that was not my calling. And then I ended up, I got married when I was 25 and my husband was playing professional baseball and really looking back.
Anastasia (11:08)
It's not your calling.
Nick (11:08)
You
Blair (11:21)
That was sort of what got me over the hump to maybe be a little riskier with my path than I would have otherwise because we were moving every few months. It's not like I was in a place where I could go to an office and have a quote unquote normal job. We moved I think like 16 times in three years. And so it was during that time that I started writing for tennis websites because I could do it remotely. was teaching tennis pretty much wherever we went. It's the one.
Anastasia (11:31)
Mm.
Wow.
Blair (11:47)
One of the benefits of being a female who can teach tennis is that, I mean, they didn't even ask me if I was any good. They're like, you are, you are a woman and you teach, you teach this sport and you're hired. So I could pretty much get a job wherever I wanted in terms of teaching tennis, but it also allowed me sort of the time and the flexibility and you know, maybe just a little push out the door to say, okay, well, I can't do much right now. Let me, let me try writing. And so that's sort of where things got started for me.
Nick (11:58)
You
Anastasia (12:15)
I think there are a lot of, I kind of liked what you said a little bit about, you know, finding the job that can kind of help you get to the passion you're looking for. It's something, you know, I think sometimes people think, well, I want to be, you know, a broadcast or whatever it is. And because they're so laser focused on that and it's so hard to get into, like you said, it's, you know, you can't just sort of walk into NBC or whatever network.
and be like, hi, I'd like to be a broadcaster. But finding that job that can kind of hold you over till you can, that can help facilitate your passion and your dream. I love that a lot.
Blair (12:45)
Right.
There are some people, like I was always just so envious of the people who, you know, in high school, they're like, I'm gonna be an anesthesiologist. I'm like, how the heck do you know that right now? That was just, some people know. And had I known when I was in high school that this is what I wanted to do, I probably would have found a school that specialized in broadcasting. But I didn't have a clear vision. And so, and some people do, which is amazing. And if you do,
You have, to me that's the biggest leg up because you can sort of plan based on that. But if you don't, I don't think that's a deal breaker to finding something you eventually love. It just might not be, you might not find it right out of the gate.
Anastasia (13:35)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is probably a question you get all the time. But if I'm someone, you know, young, probably still in college, maybe not. Maybe I'm already out and trying to do what you do. What would you tell them?
Blair (13:51)
Well, again, the good and the bad thing about tennis is that it's a small world. So if you can get your foot in the door, and I usually like to say that tournaments are the place to do it, find a job at a tournament. Because again, that team is generally not gigantic. If you do a good job for that team, word will spread. Tournaments talk, people talk to people in tennis. Which again, that's the tough part about it, because there aren't that many positions available.
But if you can show your worth, if you can get a foot in the door and do a good job of being a hard worker and know the sport, it's hard to find that. And so word spreads if you do a good job. So I always recommend, you know, looking up the media directors at the tournament, seeing if they need a staff writer, seeing if they need somebody to help with social media. And it doesn't even, you don't even have, if your thing is...
say social media, if that's what you like to do, produce social content. Even if you can't get a job directly in that department, it's still small enough in most cases that once you get in, you could ask whoever's doing social, hey, can I shadow you for an afternoon after I get my work done or whatever it is. There are so many options just to take information in once you are on the ground at a tournament. And that's how I made so many of my tennis
connections was in media rooms. One of my closest friends I met in my first media room ever, which was the Delray Beach Open in think 2011, I think. And she's still one of my best friends to this day. So again, meeting people in those media rooms, making sure you say hello to people. Some are saltier veterans than others. Not everyone wants to chat with the young whippersnapper in the media room.
Anastasia (15:34)
You
Blair (15:40)
you are for sure gonna find people who were in, and I'm talking just in general, were in your shoes at one point. And I love to try to help if I can because that was me. And I think that those of us who work in tennis are aware that, again, we need to bring in the fringe, bring in new faces, bring in new ideas. I think that's incredibly important.
Nick (16:03)
I think both Anastasia and I who have been in not as many media rooms as you but have had some experience already in kind of doing our podcasting world can relate to some of those. I've definitely gotten better with some people than others in the media room. Or I should say that sounds like there were some people, there were some people I talked to, there were some people I didn't, who didn't talk to me. But...
Blair (16:11)
Hmm?
Yup. Yup.
Nick (16:28)
It was interesting when you talk about tournaments and sort of like, yeah, see what you can do, like kind of put yourself forward, get yourself out there. There's a lot of levels of tournaments out there in tennis. Are there any that, I mean, like shoot your shot with whatever you can find. mean, like if you live down the road from Miami, then why not try for the 1000 there? But I guess like, would that also work if you were trying to do sort of that for a challenger or even an ITF?
Blair (16:54)
100%. And again, because there are so few people who sort of understand the inner workings, I don't really think there's much of a bias. Like for instance, if someone were to see out of 500 that you had challenger experience, that makes people's eyes light up. There is something to be said even at the challenger level for the fact that you have fewer resources.
but you still at the end of the week have to crown a champion and there might be a trophy ceremony and there might be a VIP section and there might be social media and you probably have a lot fewer resources to work with. So I absolutely think that there, and to be honest, I would say smaller tournaments, you are more likely to sort of dip your toe into more different departments. That would be easier to do the smaller the event and I don't really think that that is.
you know, looked down upon by higher level tournaments. think people, most people who work at the thousands have had some experience at those lower levels and they know what a grind and how challenging it can be. So I think that that is, has value in itself. For me, I would, I just champion the two fifties, you know, I'll say that to whoever wants to listen. I think they're the best, the access to, and you know, that's why when
Anastasia (18:06)
Yeah.
Blair (18:12)
You know, there's been all this talk about a restructuring of the tour and essentially doing away with the 250s and even potentially the 500s. And I'm just like, and doing away with them in the sense that they wouldn't necessarily be part of the main tour. The hope would be that it wouldn't matter, that people would still want to go and still have fun, even if maybe they aren't getting the random people who, know, say you're at a U.
American tournament and you're getting Tommy Paul and Taylor fritz and guys who are likely getting an appearance fee You might not get those I like to think that people would still show up but in general 250s for tennis fans are just as cool Because the players are generally more relaxed. There's way more access the stadiums are smaller So you have a better view of the court you can better appreciate how fast the ball is going in the spins and the strategy and the footwork I don't know. I mean, let me
Anastasia (18:48)
Yeah.
Blair (19:04)
I could be the PR person for the 250s, because I just think that they are the best.
Anastasia (19:10)
We will join you. think we, I went to the Citi open, which is a 500. But again, because these tournaments are so small, it's like you're walking right next to players. They're going to their little player section and you're just gonna go watch. It's so intimate and small and you really do, I think we do encourage, we encourage people to go to tournaments on a ground pass, obviously.
Blair (19:21)
Mm-hmm.
I think that's a great suggestion. Yep.
Anastasia (19:34)
I mean, it's in the name.
But yeah, get to appreciate the game. You get to see it up close. And you don't really get that same feeling if you're in the 300 levels of Arthur Ashe, even though the US Open is a great tournament. But you're not getting that same feeling. I mean, we've gone through your career a little bit and how you started, where you are now.
Blair (19:41)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Totally.
Anastasia (20:00)
What do you think in that run, what is maybe your proudest moment? What is your proudest moment as your current job? What would you say it is?
Blair (20:11)
This is a tough one. I am trying to think of a specific moment. I feel like this year, there were a few times where I got calls to do jobs that kind of sort of fell out of the sky. It's not like I was planning on it when the season started. And knowing that somebody would trust me to do an event like that, whether it was, know, Wilson trusting me with the Roger Federer racket
launch event in New York or, you know, I was just really fortunate to do an event where Steffi Graff was there or there is a trust level that comes with getting those sorts of roles. And I think that probably means the most to me that and also I always get so excited when someone says I saw that interview like
I like to give you specific examples because I know as a podcaster, it helps to have examples. But like if we're thinking this year about Zizou Bergs, who I would say not many people knew particularly well, maybe they had heard of him as a very distinctive name, know, he models on the side. So people may have heard of them for one reason or another. But in Houston this year, you know, I was asking every player, what's your relationship like with Clay?
And I asked him that question and he waxes poetic. It was like a minute long answer, which we did not actually put in the social media clip about Clay Snydman, who was the ATP physio. And it took me a minute to be like, what is he talking about? But when people say to me, my gosh, like at the USO, but I can't wait to go watch Zizou on court, whatever, I just thought he was the best. I saw that interview you did with him.
Anastasia (21:45)
I saw that clip.
Blair (22:02)
That makes me so happy because I probably said this on every podcast I've ever done, but in my opinion, what creates hardcore fans for life are when people can relate to a player's personality. Like, yes, it's great if they have a beautiful one-handed backhand or, you know, they can hit a serve 142 miles per hour. Like, yes, that, the tennis stands out and it stands alone, but the long-term fandoms,
Hardcore fandoms, in my opinion, are so often created by somebody connecting to a player's personality. So it is an incredibly proud moment anytime someone says to me, I saw that interview you did, and I just thought I had no idea so-and-so had such a great personality. Or I had no idea they were so funny and so engaging. And that is a proud moment for me every time.
Nick (22:55)
And that kind of really connects into one of the reasons why Anastasia, you wanted to start this podcast because you're kind of, started this, it came to me, this idea of like, you wanted to create this podcast for someone who was coming to the US Open for the first time in, or had only went to the US Open and didn't follow the tour and didn't know who any of these people were. And I think...
Anastasia (22:55)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nick (23:15)
We've been trying to help identify some of those personalities, like Zizou Berg, I mean, Anastasia, you were talking about Zizou was on your radar, like around US Open time, and who can blame you, let's be honest, he's a fun guy. And like that interview you did was not the only time that he kind of came to attention, really this US Open season. So I think it's great that yeah, it's great that what you do helps people identify players they can like and they can follow.
Anastasia (23:23)
Where's the party?
Blair (23:24)
Yeah.
Nick (23:40)
cheeky question. I do you have any kind of recommendations for anyone who might be a casual fan right now? So someone who's maybe a lower on the radar. don't let's not anger any of the fans of the big players right now. Let's go with like find someone under the radar at the minute.
Blair (23:45)
Hoo!
Okay. Okay.
Anastasia (23:51)
Nyeh!
Blair (23:55)
Under the radar. Hang on, I gotta sort of go through my, my mental, mental Rolodex.
Nick (24:02)
Blair has memorised
both sets of rankings in full, all down to 1000.
Blair (24:06)
I'm a
Anastasia (24:06)
You
Blair (24:08)
Well, I will say the ATP side is sort of a little fresher in my consciousness because I've done some work for them on sort of year in review stuff and also some talking head pieces for the next gen finals. So I do think, I think João Fonseca is gonna be a fun personality to follow. He speaks amazing English for being, I think, just 17 or 18 years old and being from Brazil. And I think that he could be a big star coming up.
Jerry Shang, which again, know it's Shung, Jung Chen. He refers to himself as Jerry. So I'm gonna call him Jerry for the purposes of this podcast. Great personality. don't know if you guys remember when, was it Mackie McDonald giving him a piggyback or him giving Mackie a piggyback? yes, I think so.
Anastasia (24:57)
yes! I think it was Macky giving him a piggyback.
Blair (25:04)
he just, his personality seems so fantastic. I have some friends who work for the ATP who are out shooting content for the next gen finals right now. They're in Jeddah and I've seen some of the behind the scenes clips of him and he's got personality for days and a, and a flashy game sort of to go along with it because there are some people, like I think Sam Quarry is a perfect example of this, of someone who
and I love Sam, riveted not many people with the spoken word while he was playing, nor were people on the edge of their seats for his style of play. But people just hadn't, maybe because of the way that he played or sort of the blase approach or what appeared to be a blase approach on court, maybe never paid attention to what he had to say, but he's one of the funniest guys we've had in tennis. And I always thought that he was a fantastic interview, but again, maybe because of the tennis.
people didn't pay as much attention to the game. So it's nice when those two things go together. It's a little easier sell if you will. But I think that those two young guys are gonna be people to keep an eye on. And then, ooh, on the women's side, I look forward, and this is not under the radar, but I do look forward to people getting to know Emma Navarro better. I think people this year,
had heard reports of her sense of humor. And I have literally heard it from anybody who has spent five minutes or more with her that she's hilarious. So I am hoping to see more of that, that actually fans get to sort of partake in. We've seen little bits on social media, but again, what a year she's had and hopefully maybe there's a comfort level that comes along with that experience and maybe we'll see more of that in 2025. Who else on the women's side?
Anastasia (26:53)
I I like, well, I like that you are, you're putting the, you know, educating the audience to, about these players as part of almost what you do on court. remember, I think it was Miami, I think it was Miami where you talked to Tomas Machac about his shorts and no one, you know, that's just, if you're,
Blair (26:53)
man, this is, go ahead.
Yes.
Anastasia (27:17)
If you're sort of like a hardcore tennis fan and you've seen all the social media clips and all that stuff, maybe you know, but if you're just coming to a tournament, you've never heard of the short shorts and why he's associated with the short shorts. And now it's a thing. Tommy Paul is wearing the short shorts. So I remember that interview specifically and I thought, my God, that's great because it gets people who are not in it into it.
in a fun way that's not just sort of like forehands, backhands and like short shot percentages where sometimes you lose the casual fan because they don't know what the meanings of all that is.
Blair (27:54)
Yes, and half the time, mean, we see it, I mean, probably we see it most at the US Open and probably bigger tournaments in general, but a lot of people are there just there for the party. And if you can have like an actual tennis takeaway for them, it's like, ha ha, I learned that this diminutive Czech guy calls himself a short short king.
Anastasia (28:04)
Yeah.
Blair (28:17)
That can be sort of an unexpected bonus for someone who's going in expecting to have no idea what's happening because that is relatable. Sometimes the actual athleticism, not so much, but the personalities can be relatable. Thank you for noting that because he's a great example because he's super soft spoken, but really, really funny. I got a lot of criticism actually online for asking that question because people said, you would never ask a woman.
that question and what, which again, fair, and I'm happy to engage with that and explain. That is, didn't know, I had never interviewed him before that on court interview in Miami. so I don't know what his personality is like. And so before we started the post-match interview, I actually went up to him at the bench and I said, hey, you know, I'm Blair, nice to meet you.
Anastasia (28:48)
Fair?
Blair (29:06)
if I joke about your shorts at the end of this interview, like, that okay with you? And he's like, yeah, like, sure, go for it. And so I'm like, fantastic. So again, to me, I feel like as long as the player is in on it, comfortable with it, you can have those moments that potentially expose a piece of their personality that people hadn't seen before. There's maybe some risks that goes along with that because sometimes those things can fall on their faces and I've...
Anastasia (29:21)
Exactly.
Blair (29:32)
I've been a part of those moments as well. You're like, nobody was paying attention to that one. So there is a little bit of risk, but I think in general, as long as it's done in a professional way, it's worth the risk.
Nick (29:43)
And.
Anastasia (29:43)
Yeah, yeah, especially
when he calls himself that.
Nick (29:46)
Yeah,
like he had reputation already. He put that out there before you did. But going, you talking a lot about kind of questions there and sort of like what kind of you're thinking about. Does maybe the different audiences at the tournament you might be emceeing for influence how you come up with questions? So like, would you ask a different set of questions at someone like Miami or even like a 250 at Delray Beach compared to the US Open?
Blair (29:47)
right. That helps.
Cool.
Possibly, and again, that's something that I didn't think about before I started doing this job because you are playing often to a TV audience as well as an in-house audience. And the TV audience doesn't necessarily need to hear every interview somebody saying how amazing the crowd is or how amazing this tournament site is. Once the people at home have heard that once, maybe I don't dedicate a full question.
to or maybe I, you one of the things that I, somebody who's often been told like four questions max or three questions max, I will sort of mix in the crowd question in, know, how, you know, how did you get it done today in front of this incredible crowd? Like sort of setting the stage for them to be like, it is so wonderful. And also here's how I got it done so that I don't have to waste an entire question on.
Anastasia (30:55)
You
Blair (31:05)
How about the atmosphere today? Which is for the crowd, for the people paying money to sit in the seats, they wanna be able to feel like they're part of the action. So there is importance to that as well. And I think that is one of the toughest things. So it's less maybe catering to the location, unless for instance, have Nico Jarry playing in Chile.
is maybe a little bit different and then you adjust the questions accordingly. I think that's probably the one time where I really probably do adjust the questions. Jess Pegula this summer playing, Miss Buffalo Bills playing in New York, which ended up being a really cool moment. that's probably the time when I adjust it the most, but I would say the more challenging thing is how do you service the in-house audience and also the TV audience as well? And sometimes it's freeing, because not every interview, not every post-match interview
Anastasia (31:39)
In New York, yeah.
Blair (31:55)
has the deal to have the post-matches go to the World Feed. So sometimes I am just catering to the house and that you can sort of, it's a little more free when you can do that, because it doesn't really matter. So you could have fun, sort of you can interact more because you you don't have to worry about the people at home understanding what's going on.
Anastasia (32:14)
Yeah, yeah. So I always like to like base everything in reality and people might look at Blair on TV and it looks so great and she's interviewing Sabalenka and like everything's perfect and lovely. What are the hard parts? What are the hard parts about doing your job?
Blair (32:27)
Yeah.
I mean, I think one of the hard parts is just the length of the day. I am as the MC, and again, sometimes I am, like I said, you're servicing the world feed, you're doing interviews for TV, but I am not a TV host in the sense that I'm sitting at the studio and here's my block of time when I'm on duty. I am literally working from at least an hour before play.
play ends for the day and that by the end of a especially a Masters 1000 or a slam and even at the 250s because I'm doing more at the 250s generally it's sort of a more comprehensive job I'm doing many other things that that I think is always a challenge sort of the level of fatigue I always chuckle there's at Indian Wells in particular
they would occasionally bring in people from other sports. And there is always sort of like a day, like three days in where they sort of look over and they're like, this is what you do. This is it. it could be because it is such an incredibly long day. It's not like you have one football game a week and you get to
Anastasia (33:47)
Yeah.
Blair (33:48)
you know, focus all your social media attention on that one timeframe. It just, sort of never ends. And I would say that is the most challenging thing. And also if you're doing any sort of content production, whether it's for broadcast or social media, trying to make things feel fresh. When there are 10 other people trying to make things feel fresh, we...
after week after week. So not only do you have to come up with fresh content for yourself, but you have to come up with content that sets yourself apart from all the 10 other people coming up with content on a week by week basis. And that, I have a ton of respect for, you know, I mentioning my friends at the ATP doing content at the next gen finals right now, to have to come up with that stuff every single week.
Anastasia (34:21)
people.
Blair (34:36)
It's enough to just fry your brain matter. It's hard. That part is hard.
Nick (34:43)
I mean, going back to the answer you gave earlier, mean, like, that's probably where you have to hope for some players or some individuals who will help kind of generate that for themselves who are like, they're the ones like they can put into that like Emma Navarro. In some of the content she's done for the WTA has been really, really funny and engaging. We've seen some of that sense of humor that you've talked about there. like, I guess for you, you're gonna have to really kind of going out there hoping, I'm really hoping that this person I'm talking to is gonna
Blair (35:02)
Yes.
Nick (35:11)
come through here and I'm not having to do with the heavy lifting which might be difficult after they just had a long match.
Blair (35:12)
Totally.
Yeah, and sometimes,
right, exactly. sometimes I found that there had been ideas that I was like, this is a good one. Like, this is gonna do really well. And that's one thing I've learned. You can't predict. You cannot predict it because I've had some ideas that I'm like, this is gold. Or some things that have happened, like I think this is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Everybody else is gonna also think it's the funniest thing they've ever seen. And that is not.
Anastasia (35:26)
It's gonna be this one.
Blair (35:41)
But then you have a random thing that wasn't even on purpose that is set, and that relationship with Clay thing is a perfect example. I wasn't thinking that was gonna be the comedic relief for the day, and it just sort of happened. So sometimes you get gifts that sort of drop out of content heaven, and then sometimes you think you this well-planned idea that falls on its face. So I've tried to learn.
to keep my expectations low because you just never know. And you can't really predict how an interview is gonna go or how even your best laid content plans are gonna go.
Anastasia (36:18)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, we only have a few more minutes here, so just gonna start, you know, winding down a bit, but I mean, you've been in the game for a long time and you've seen ebbs and flows, I think, with tennis as a sport. Where do you think, what do you think the landscape is now, especially for someone who, you know, again, I really do, would like, like an episode like this.
to target young people who maybe want to get into the sport as a profession, not just as maybe a player or something. But what's the tennis landscape right now and where do you think it's headed?
Blair (36:56)
Well, I hope the fact that tennis I feel like is now, not as now, I feel like it always has been in some sense, but there is sort of a trendy piece of the puzzle. I do hope that that can help attract at least the first step for fans who are maybe seeing it on TikTok or, I don't know, Snapchat, or maybe some of them are still seeing it on Reels, but I think that little pieces like that that make tennis look.
sleek and shiny and fun and star-studded. That can maybe sort of whet the appetite a little bit, maybe pique some curiosity. And then I feel like I do hope one thing that I'm hoping is that tennis can, at the grassroots level in terms of the coaching level, do better than it's maybe doing now.
I think that pickleball has had an impact on tennis 100%. I don't think you can say that a sport that's come in and taken over tennis courts, many of them I had, you know, place a facility not far from me. They had 12 tennis courts and now they have however many, they have zero tennis courts and however many pickleball courts you can divide those 12 tennis courts up into. So I do think it's had an impact. And I think a big part of that is having coaches who can coach well.
because one of the things that's so attractive about pickleball is you can get out there and on your first day you can rally. And I think that a good tennis coach can also teach someone that fairly early on if they're not trying to teach them to hit a forehand like this because that's how Rafa does it. This is, I'm getting on my soapbox now, but I think that yes, there is that social media piece of things like, ooh, that looks fun. I want to see, you know, maybe there's a tennis tournament in my area. So I think that's a piece of the puzzle. But I think it's also like the reason
Pickleball has a pretty good fan base at their events is because all these people are playing pickleball. They might not be glued to the pickleball channel every day, but they're playing pickleball and therefore there is an interest in going to watch professional pickleball. And so I do think that as much as we like to make tennis look sleek and shiny and amazing, and it is, I think that grassroots tennis growth is just as important a piece of the puzzle. And so I hope that.
both of those things combined, doing things at the community level, which I know the USTA is working on that. They have a new arm that's sort of educating coaches, which I think is incredibly important. So again, the wheels are turning, but I think maybe the pickleball thing was a bit of a wake-up call in some ways. Like tennis needs to sort of figure out how to streamline some of those things at the grassroots level to get that gateway interest in place.
Anastasia (39:37)
Yeah, yeah, I always talk about accessibility and just, you I live in Brooklyn in New York and trying to get a court to play it's impo-
at 5 a.m. there are lines outside of the tennis court of people waiting to just play. I'm like, so, and here's the thing. It's like, you know, the hardcore fans at 5 a.m. they're going to go line up. But if you're a casual and you're just like, I want to get into tennis and you show up at five and there's a line 30 people deep, you might not be picking up the racket anymore. So it's, it's how do you make it accessible?
Blair (39:55)
Yes.
Yes.
Anastasia (40:15)
and easy for people to play. I actually, now that you brought that up, it's totally something I want to look into because during the Garden Cup, there was kind of a mini event where they split the court up in half and they were playing this sort of, I think they called it red ball tennis and they were playing with the youth ball, so the ones that are red and yellow and it was like four people, so there were eight people playing on the court and I was like, this is interesting. It's basically mini tennis.
Blair (40:33)
yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Anastasia (40:45)
You know, and it's sort of, yeah, you have your little roll up net and you take it anywhere and you put it up and then maybe you just start hitting a tennis ball. So, I think that's very interesting and I'm glad you brought that up because it's, you know, like, like what Nick and I are doing where it's sort of like, go to the tournament, see them play live. You'll be hooked is great. Like you said, but then they want to play. And then that's when the, the friction starts and that's not great.
Blair (41:05)
huh.
Yes.
Well that, can I just add one more thing to that? I, because I know you had on your list of questions you were going to ask if we had enough time about the WTA finals and talk about an opportunity for people who've never seen professional tennis before to come out and be exposed to it. I I tweeted after the final, you know, if that match, Coco Gauff
and Zheng Qinwen if that was the first tennis match you've ever seen, I would be like, where can I fly? Like, get on my computer. How far do I have to go? Cause I want to experience this again. It was that amazing of a showcase of professional tennis in general. Forget women's professional tennis. It was just an amazing showcase of professional tennis. And the WTA,
has programs in place. And I saw it with my own eyes and I got to hear from the female head of tennis over in Saudi Arabia, who was just an incredible human being and just listening to her passion was so cool. They have those programs in place to go out to schools to expose boys and girls to the sport. I, again, that's sort of starting from scratch over there in a lot of ways.
Anastasia (42:25)
Yeah. Yeah.
Blair (42:26)
there are maybe fewer things to compete with. I know over here in the US at least, like, goodness gracious, like the parenting arms race for sports. Yeah, it's not my favorite thing as somebody who has two young kids. But yeah, I just, think that seeing it and then having the opportunity to play, you're exactly right. Like that's the combination and it's not easy. It's not easy, but I think it's doable.
Anastasia (42:51)
Yeah, yeah. Nick, do you have any other questions?
Nick (42:55)
I think, you're putting on the spot here. yeah, the, yeah, I think that's, I think it's very exciting. I I like, can't comment an awful lot because I'm based in the UK. So the coaching scene and the grassroots scene is a little different. For example, we don't have pickleball here. the closest it's not, it's not come over here yet. It's, it's, it's a very small community at the minute, but it's mostly paddle is more of the, the main rivals at work, but.
Blair (43:16)
Right.
Nick (43:20)
A lot of what you're describing is sort of very similar, but yeah, I would agree with you on the, yeah, that match being the showcase. I've always been like, yeah, I think tennis has this idea of if we market it right, people want to watch it, they'll go want to go play it. But then it's about making it easy to play. But yeah, in terms of what...
Blair (43:37)
Mm-hmm.
Nick (43:39)
what you do. Yeah, I think it looks like you're having the time of your life doing it and which is the main reason why everyone enjoys your interviews.
Blair (43:44)
I am. It is the best.
Well, I appreciate that. No, I really do. I do truly love it. It's not the logistics part is hard. Again, I mentioned I have a family that is, I didn't mention that as being one of the challenges. That is probably the closest to home challenge for me because I am competitive and I want to be the best that I can possibly be at my job.
That's my first priority is at home. And so trying to figure out that balance is hard. There's no other way to put it, it's difficult. But if I didn't love it, I wouldn't be trying to figure out what goes on each scale because it's worth it to me because it is so special and I feel so just blessed that God has given me the opportunity to do what I love.
and I didn't even know it was a job back when I was doing all the math for my economics degree. I could have saved myself some sleepless nights there. yeah, God knew the grand plan was not in fact to be an investment banker. So here we are.
Nick (44:53)
Something's work out for the better. think something's
Anastasia (44:53)
There are enough of those.
Nick (44:55)
working out for the better. And yeah, hey, look, at least you've got to stay in tennis whilst you're there.
Blair (45:00)
Yes, that's a great point.
Anastasia (45:02)
Yeah, yeah. Well, Blair, I mean, this was really awesome. And to all our listeners, I hope you've taken away from this as much as I have. Like, I love, my favorite thing is like when I record a podcast, I'm like, ooh, really? Tell me more. I'm learning.
Blair (45:17)
I could have talked to you guys
for ages. No, I love talking about tennis and it's so hard for me because most of the people who, most of my local friends are like, they have no idea what I do. And so being able to talk to fellow tennis lovers from home in Texas is pretty great. So thank you.
Anastasia (45:27)
What?
Of course, of course. So thank you Blair for coming onto the podcast and yeah, we'll see you guys all on the next episode soon. Bye.
