Back within the locker room after a profitable first-round efficiency on the Australian Open in January, Coco Gauff caught a glimpse of a pleasant face throughout the room. The participant was scoffing sweets quickly after a match, prompting Gauff to joke issues should have gone nicely for her on court docket.
That laughter was not returned, for the participant was stewing after a depressing day on court docket: “They have been, like, ‘No, that is despair sweet,’” says Gauff, wincing.
A part of the job description is sharing locker rooms world wide with the identical folks they’re charged with battling on the court docket, an association that may result in awkward interactions for all concerned. For a lot of, akin to Paula Badosa, a part of the preparation for matches consists of avoiding eye contact in any respect prices. “That’s the factor we do, I believe, all of us,” she says, smiling. “We attempt to keep away from it and simply say hello. That day you keep away from the dialog and eye contact for certain.”
Gauff concurs: “[With] the folks I do know very well, it’s probably not that awkward. We’ll discuss and be, ‘OK, see you on the market,’ and that’s high quality. However at all times with folks you don’t know, you don’t know whether or not to say hello to them or not. I’m somebody who normally at all times says hello, however the responses fluctuate. And I perceive – get within the second.”
For Belinda Bencic, the conditions the place she and her opponents are grouped carefully collectively, akin to sharing a golf cart en path to the court docket, are extra uncomfortable than sharing a locker room. Nonetheless, even she can not keep away from the strangeness of a few of these eventualities: “Typically you’re doing all your hair or preparing for the match and your opponent is correct there,” she says. “You don’t know if you happen to ought to say small discuss or not. Everyone seems to be totally different. Some gamers are very relaxed – we’re speaking – and a few gamers don’t need to discuss to you earlier than the match.”
The awkwardness doesn’t merely prolong to the opponent that day. As Gauff’s fake pas in Melbourne illustrated, dozens of gamers go out and in of the locker room after their matches every day, which means it’s a minefield of emotion. Some gamers are in tears after an excruciating defeat and others are raging. Typically it’s unattainable to know precisely what occurred.
“The worst factor about sharing a locker room is seeing somebody, understanding they performed, however not understanding how the rating went,” says Gauff. “You don’t know what temper they’re in. I at all times discover that onerous to navigate.”
After spending a lot of their lives in communal locker rooms from their junior days, gamers rapidly turn out to be used to those interactions. Madison Keys doesn’t know another manner: “I fairly get pleasure from it as a result of although you’re sharing a locker room together with your opponents, you’re additionally sharing a locker room with buddies,” she says.
“There have been moments the place I do know that both myself or different gamers have had actually robust moments and also you at all times have somebody round you who may give you a hug and discuss you thru it. There’s that speedy assist. I suppose different sports activities have that, but it surely’s your personal teammates. It’s good there’s an instantaneous sense of neighborhood versus [being] remoted.”
One apparent option to minimise awkward interactions is to spend as little time as attainable within the surroundings. Jannik Sinner has perfected the artwork of getting out and in as rapidly as attainable: “Once I began to return on tour, I used to be on-site so much,” he says. “I might spend numerous time within the locker room, numerous time within the restaurant space. Now I’m a bit totally different. Particularly on coaching days, I come right here [and] when the coaching is over or I eat one thing very quick right here, then I depart or I depart right away.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas believes most gamers are on good phrases with one another, however observes that some are much less keen to greet after they cross paths. He’s notably unimpressed by individuals who work together in another way as soon as they obtain a modicum of success.
“One factor I don’t perceive is how they develop a little bit of an angle and a little bit of an ego as soon as they make one or two good outcomes. Their entire persona modifications. I wouldn’t say conceited – maybe a few of them.
“I simply want extra weren’t connected to their outcomes and to what they try this determines who they’re. I really like humble folks. That’s one of many causes I like Giannis Antetokounmpo so much. He’s achieved a lot by way of basketball. He’s some of the humble athletes I’ve ever met and hung out with. I want extra tennis gamers have been like that.”
Others haven’t any issues with their friends. Daniil Medvedev says his coaches, Rohan Goetzke and Thomas Johansson, typically inform him tales about how messy relations between gamers was. “I heard from them that 20 years in the past it was as poisonous because it might be,” he says. “I used to be shocked. I used to be, like: ‘However that’s why you guys end your careers early as a result of it’s fixed strain.’
He advised me some tales the place from once you get up you’re already underneath strain. Going to the locker room, you’re underneath strain.”
These days, Medvedev says, the locker room is way extra peaceable and largely drama free. The game is a melting pot of various cultures, customs and background, however, in response to Bencic, together with a potent serve, groundstrokes and a cool head underneath strain, a key high quality for a high participant is tact and discretion. “It may be just a little bit awkward if somebody has had a nasty day or simply misplaced or one thing, then another person is available in and is all completely satisfied,” she says. “It’s a shared house, so you must actually even be just a little bit respectful to everybody else. Simply be respectful and regular.”
