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Q&A: TUESDAY, JULY
16
Alexandra Stevenson: When will she
be "Alex the great"?
By
Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
Fred
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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She’s enigmatic, talented,
delightful, outspoken, controversial and completely unpredictable
both on court and off.
San Diego’s Alexandra Stevenson
burst on to the scene in 1999, when, fresh out of La Jolla Country
Day, she reached the Wimbledon semis. The daughter of former tennis
journalist Samantha Stevenson and NBA legend Julius Erving, Stevenson
hasn’t come close to matching that Grand Slam result in the
past three years. But, much to her credit, since last fall she has
clawed her way up the charts, cracking the top 30 and coming into
Wimbledon seeded No. 24. Boasting a huge serve, a serviceable volley
and big but erratic groundstrokes, Stevenson expected to win the
title this year. But (there goes that “but”) she was shocked
in the first round 6-1, 6-3 by the unknown Saori Obata.
Stevenson, who is coached by her mother and the USTA’s Ray
Ruffles, will play in all three of California’s hard court
tournaments – Palo Alto, La Costa and Manhattan Beach. Here
she talks about her career and future.
tennisreporters.net: Your career has
already been quite a journey.
Alexandra Stevenson: Very much so.
I could already write a memoir. There aren’t many 21-year-olds
who have had the experiences I’ve had, starting from Wimbledon
’99, which was crazy, coming out of high school, not knowing
what I was doing and then having to play top-10 players. Then the
interest in me slowed down and I went off the radar screen. People
started dissing me, which made me tougher. The whole society was
doing it. It had a very negative impact on me. Without my mom, I
would have quit. But she wouldn’t let me.
tr.net:
What were people saying?
AS: When you get to the Wimbledon
semis out of nowhere, people expect you to all of a sudden to win
Grand Slams. They said I was a fluke, overweight and slow. Someone
said I was chirpy and happy but had no substance. That was hard.
I’m not 30, over the hill. People don’t understand that
my game is totally different from other girls’ and it takes
a while to develop. It’s a man’s game. Look at Kuerten,
he took a while.
tr.net:
Were you’d wishing you never reached the Wimby semis?
AS: No. It was a great experience
and happened for a reason – God didn’t want me to go to
school. Otherwise, I would have been at UCLA. I was proud of it.
Everyone was trying to diss it and take it away, but you can’t
take history away.
tr.net:
So you think that people should have understood that you were still
on a learning curve?
AS: People are fickle and go with
who’s winning, who’s the hot ticket and if you’re
not, you’re dirt. But it was good going through it because
I learned a lot and if I hadn’t gone through it, I would have
been totally clueless about the world. You can’t trust anyone.
When I came on tour, I was really nice and trusted a lot of people
and ended up getting hurt. Your blood cares about you and about
five percent of other people sincerely care. If you’re lucky,
you’ll have a close circle. I learned that it’s a job.
I still play for the glory of the sport because I was raised that
way and still play for the fun of it, but if you don’t take
it as a job you are going to get eaten up. I needed to focus and
grow up.
tr.net:
You went back to school, too.
AS: I’m studying liberal arts
online at the University of Colorado. I’m going to graduate
in 2006. I want to go to the Yale School of Drama and NYU to study
film and be an actress.
tr.net:
That’s a lot.
AS: I want to pull a Jennifer Lopez
tr.net:
And she never got to the Wimbledon semis.
AS: I’ll pull one ahead of her.
But that’s later on. You don’t have to just play tennis.
You play tennis maybe two hours a day and then maybe an hour and
a half workout so I went back to school to get something done. It
makes you more educated, so you don’t lose brain cells out
here. Because let me tell you, you can lose serious brain cells
on the tour.
tr.net:
How much better are you than in ’99?
AS: There’s no comparison. I
was a high school girl with no muscle tone. Martina and Anna were
early bloomers. I was very late. People tell me that I’m 21
and washed up and I look at them and say, “You’re stupid.’”
tr.net:
You see yourself as more of a Pierce or a Davenport, who won their
first Slam titles in mid-career.
AS: Yeah. People dissed Lindsay, too.
There are little phenoms who come up when they’re 12, but they
grow up in a different culture, with different bodies. It’s
a different way of life.
tr.net:
But two of those phenoms are your good friends, Venus and Serena.
AS: They developed fast but they also
have the athletic gene on their side that helped them. I do, too.
They worked hard down in Florida while I was going to school. Now
that I’m doing well they are really cheering me on. Venus writes
me little notes. If I lose, she’ll come to me and say, “Alex,
next time I’ll have to beat her for you.” It’s nice,
I’m getting closer in the rankings to them. It’s not as
far as No. 115 [her 2001 ranking]. We have a picture when Serena
is eight, I’m nine and Venus is 10 and Venus has just beaten
me in Anaheim. We were like the Ghetto Special. It’s so funny.
Our hair is sticking up and we all wear hand-me-downs. Our clothes
are horrible.
tr.net:
Last fall, you went to play in Europe and Russia right after 9/11,
when almost no other American went. How was that?
AS: We flew into Boston the first
day after 9/11 and it was really weird. It was like that Stephen
King movie where the people fly into an airport and there’s
no one there.
tr.net:
The Langoliers, where people are being chased by time.
AS: It was a time warp. Just like
that. When we went to Leipzig and Moscow, there were no other Americans
there. It was weird. I trekked through Europe and it was a nightmare.
I was in qualies everywhere. But I went from No. 115 to 66. I had
to go to work.
tr.net: You came into Wimbledon seeded
for the first time and were shocked in the first round by a no name.
AS: I wasn’t prepared. I took
two months off after March because of a wrist injury, played Roland
Garros, got sick in Eastbourne. It hasn’t been a very good
five weeks. I was better two days before the match and I thought
I would win. I froze. I couldn’t get a ball in the court. I
didn’t win a service game until the last games.
tr.net:
You were tight?
AS: Do we have to talk about this?
I couldn’t serve. I was hitting the ball cleanly but I aimed
the ball wrong. That comes from not playing matches. It will make
me tougher. I’m going to go out and beat everybody in the hard
court season. I’m going to go out there and be a killer.
tr.net:
Aren’t you supposed to not aim the ball and have it come more
naturally?
AS: Yeah, but my aim was so off, and
you have to aim it somewhere. I couldn’t correct it. It was
really horrible, it was worse than 2000, when I came back and lost
all my points.
tr.net:
Because you think that now you’re better and more mature?
AS: Yeah. I thought I could go all
the way through and win the title. But I didn’t. It was a big
letdown. I’m going to win Wimbledon one of these years.
tr.net:
Sampras said it’s really hard to go home from a tournament
you expected to do well in.
AS: It’s devastating. This is
what Pete and I build our year around. I want to be like him, where
he’s won seven Wimbledons. Seeing him lose made me more upset.
I was already upset but after seeing him I felt worse.
tr.net:
He’s your inspiration?
AS: I really look up to him and it’s
unfair that people are saying he should retire. He’s a great
champion. He’s won more Grand Slams than anybody and he shouldn’t
be treated like a has-been just because he’s having trouble
winning. Everybody does. Look at Andre. They put Pete down because
he’s an easy target. It’s unconscionable. He just had
a bad day.
tr.net:
He’s had a bad year.
AS: Yeah, but he’ll get it back.
They should’nt be mean to him. But people have been mean to
me. That’s why I feel for him.
tr.net:
But you’re 21, with your best days ahead of you, and he’s
almost 31, with his best days behind him. He’ll never be the
dominant player he was five years ago.
AS: You can’t say that. He could
have a comeback. You always have to think positive. He still thinks
he can play. He’s the same person, maybe five years older,
but if he trains hard and really wants it, he can come back and
beat all the guys.
tr.net:
Are you still working with Pete Fischer (Sampras’ former coach,
who spent more than three years in jail on child molestation charges)?
AS: I’ve known him since I was
nine so it’s not like he’s going to be an enemy. But,
no.
Samantha Stevenson: Alexandra, the
correct thing to say about Pete Fisher is that he will always be
your friend and mentor without getting into all the stuff, that’s
unfair to her. But, on the road, I’m the coach.
tr.net:
Are you going to move back to California?
AS: I’m trying sell my place
in Florida and might buy something in Miami and LA.
tr.net:
Is this a big year for you?
AS: After losing in the first round
of Roland Garros and Wimbledon, it’s been a bad two months,
but I’m still planning on reaching my goal of top 16 and qualifying
for the year-end championships. I have a lot of tournaments in front
of me so I can’t get too depressed. Earlier this year I was
playing well but I was losing to the top players in the third or
fourth rounds. It was making me mad. Then I hurt my wrist and couldn’t
lift a racket for two months. I lost my edge and have to get it
back and I will get it back in the summer season. I can play with
the top five. They all put their underwear on the same way I do.
But the top five get treated like queens, so much better than everyone
else. They get perks like a Mercedes, or to walk in front of people
and ask for a practice court. You shouldn’t be able to do that.
But when you’re in the top five you’ve made it and it’s
a much easier life.
tr.net:
How much do you love playing?
AS: There’s nothing better. It’s
so cool. It beats sitting in class or a 10-to-5 day job. It’s
so much fun to get better and run around the court. That’s
what I lacked in 2000, when I didn’t want to go out on court.
In Florida, I didn’t like who I was around and the person I
was becoming. It was like a bad karma.
Samantha Stevenson: We don’t
believe in karma, Alexandra.
AS: Then it was bad vibes, like when
you walk into a place and you feel weird. [People were] cold. For
a Southern California girl, it was hard to move to Florida.
Samantha Stevenson: But you got to
pick the bedroom you always wanted.
AS: It’s really cool.
tr.net:
Are you peaking?
AS: Not even close. Maybe when I’m
30, but hopefully in the next year. Now I feel stronger and think
I can win. I’m not worried about who I’m playing anymore
but how I play. My goal is still to reach the WTA Championships
this year.
tr.net:
Which will be in LA, maybe your new hometown.
AS: What better place than LA because
of the Hollywood scene.
tr.net:
Are you attracted to the Hollywood scene, going out and rubbing
shoulders with celebrities?
AS: I don’t go out. I don’t
have a celebrity lifestyle. I don’t know any celebrities.
tr.net:
Serena knows celebrities and goes out and she’s your friend.
AS: But Serena’s won Grand Slams
and she’s invited. I haven’t done anything yet and am
not known, which is good because it keeps me focused. I work out,
play tennis and go to sleep. I’m pretty boring. I go to an
occasional movie and study. I like to pretend I do a lot, but I
don’t.
tr.net:
That’s not an exciting lifestyle for a 21-year-old. Are you
missing something?
AS: I’ve never done it, so I
don’t know what it’s like. I only see it in movies and
say, “That looks like fun.’”
tr.net:
There have to be a couple of times when you’ve gone out and
partied, especially in high school.
AS: Never. I went to school, drove
up to LA three times a week to practice and then drove back on Friday
to see Robert Lansdorp, played tournaments on the weekends and then
went back to school on Monday. My senior year, I finally went to
a party after we graduated and it was the day before we left for
England. I left in an hour because it was so stupid.
tr.net:
Maybe you should go to more parties since that was the year you
reached the Wimbledon semis.
AS: I don’t think it was that
– I left because everyone was so gone and I thought it was
really childish. I like to dance but I never saw the point of going
to parties where’s there’s alcohol and people get in trouble.
tr.net:
You’ve never gone out to a club to dance?
AS: Never. Once, I went to an under-21
club and it was pretty funny. So, technically, I’ve never gone
to a club. Serena wants to take me. Maybe I’ll go with her
once.
tr.net:
You don’t want to see how a lot of the rest your peers live?
AS: No. I want to be in the top 10,
and to be there I can’t be partying and getting interested
in boys and dresses. I’m interested in clothes, I just have
nowhere to wear them.
tr.net:
But Serena goes out sometimes and she’s won a few Slams.
AS: But she’s very focused and
I can get distracted. There’s no reason to waste your energy.
I like to go shopping – that’s my thing. But I’m
on a budget and need to save money if I want to buy a house in California.
When I win a Grand Slam, then I’ll have a big party in L.A.
That will be my reward.
tr.net:
With alcohol?
AS: I don’t drink, but I guess
I’d have to provide some for other people. But I’d just
have music and water.
tr.net:
Not even juice? Ms. Excitement.
AS: All I drink is water [laughter].
tr.net:
You’re torturing yourself.
AS: Water is very important. You don’t
want to get dehydrated when you’re dancing [laughing].
tr.net:
Who is Alexandra Stevenson?
AS: I’m nice, fashionable and
fun to be around. On court, I’m tough, a great athlete and
you don’t want to play me.
This
article first appeared in Inside Tennis magazine. For subscription
info, call 510.530.2200.
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