Does WTA top players have any friends

[roysid]

In my opinion, a big issue in WTA which nobody is bothered about is lack of camaraderie or sisterhood. Prime examples are

- The lower ranked players seem to dislike and resent the top players a lot. More so if the top player is a diva.

- The top players in turn are very cold towards lesser ranked players. Among themselves also they don't like each other.

- See the handshakes between WTA players for example. Can someone get Sharapova- Pironkova handshake

Why is so? Why nobody is bothered.

Who are friends of top players. Like Sharapova, Azarenka, Serena, Wozniaki etc

[rayoflight110]

Originally Posted by roysid

In my opinion, a big issue in WTA which nobody is bothered about is lack of camaraderie or sisterhood. Prime examples are

- The lower ranked players seem to dislike and resent the top players a lot. More so if the top player is a diva.

- The top players in turn are very cold towards lesser ranked players. Among themselves also they don't like each other.

- See the handshakes between WTA players for example. Can someone get Sharapova- Pironkova handshake

Why is so? Why nobody is bothered.

Who are friends of top players. Like Sharapova, Azarenka, Serena, Wozniaki etc

Will be kind of hard to make friendships as a professional tennis player at the top level, even outside of tennis. Their lives are pretty hectic, they travel all over the world and probably won't have a lot of time to 'check in' with friends or build a large social circle. Also their childhoods were probably spent in tennis academies far away from their hometowns, so childhood friendships would have been difficult to develop too.

Plus it would be difficult for a 'non tennis player' being friends with a professional, what could you possibly talk about in your mundane 9 to 5 lives, compared to the very stressful, but uber exciting, lucrative, glamorous and intruiging life of a superstar in one of the world's premier sports.

[Alchemy-Z]

http://bangkokbobbysports.wordpress....ir-friendship/

[Aonex]

Aren't Wozniaki and Azarenka best friends? I suppose you can say the same thing about some of the men... I'm not sure Fed has a ton of friends on tour either.

[jm1980]

You can tell Caroline Wozniacki isn't No. 1 anymore. While the smiling Dane nicknamed "Sunshine" reigned, the tour seemed like one big, happy sorority.

Coincidence or not, there has been a lot more consistency in the upper ranks since Wozniacki's fall from the top, and a lot more hissing, spitting and grunting. No. 1 Azarenka, No. 2 Maria Sharapova and new No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska have been in the later rounds of tournaments regularly this year, and at each other's throats nearly as often.

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id...adwanska-other

[BullDogTennis]

Originally Posted by Aonex

Aren't Wozniaki and Azarenka best friends? I suppose you can say the same thing about some of the men... I'm not sure Fed has a ton of friends on tour either.

but does anyone resent him? theres a difference by him kinda being anti social, and spending most of his time with his family than people wanting to punch him in the face.

[OldFedIsOld]

Originally Posted by BullDogTennis

but does anyone resent him? theres a difference by him kinda being anti social, and spending most of his time with his family than people wanting to punch him in the face.

Most pro players mutually respect each other as long as they didn't try anything dirty like pull an MTO at an important time or cheat on line calls. Crazy Dani is probably the only person I can think on tour(banned now) who was hated by everyone.

The only friends of Federer I can think of on tour are Wawrinka, ljubicic, Gasquet, and Monfills. There are probably more but I can't be 100% certain with their relationship with him.

Edit: Tommy Haas as well

[kaku]

I feel like you never hear about those WTA friendships like you do on the ATP, such as Isner-Blake, Roddick-Fish, Nadal-Murray, Djokovic-Murray, Nadal and Ferrer, etc

[roysid]

Among lower ranked players they are quite friendly with each other like dulko-pennetta..erani-vinci. the russians.
But top players having friends..no way.
sharapova....serena are the girls most disliked i think.

[rayoflight110]

Originally Posted by OldFedIsOld

Most pro players mutually respect each other as long as they didn't try anything dirty like pull an MTO at an important time or cheat on line calls. Crazy Dani is probably the only person I can think on tour(banned now) who was hated by everyone.

The only friends of Federer I can think of on tour are Wawrinka, ljubicic, Gasquet, and Monfills. There are probably more but I can't be 100% certain with their relationship with him.

Edit: Tommy Haas as well

Who is crazy dani?

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by rayoflight110

Who is crazy dani?

Daniel Koellerer. He was banned from tennis for life for supposed match fixing, although the tennis authorities have never told the public which matches he is supposed to have fixed. The whole thing stinks of a Stalinist show trial.

[RealityPolice]

Originally Posted by rayoflight110

Will be kind of hard to make friendships as a professional tennis player at the top level, even outside of tennis. Their lives are pretty hectic, they travel all over the world and probably won't have a lot of time to 'check in' with friends or build a large social circle. Also their childhoods were probably spent in tennis academies far away from their hometowns, so childhood friendships would have been difficult to develop too.

Plus it would be difficult for a 'non tennis player' being friends with a professional, what could you possibly talk about in your mundane 9 to 5 lives, compared to the very stressful, but uber exciting, lucrative, glamorous and intruiging life of a superstar in one of the world's premier sports.

There are actually a lot of friendships among the name-brand women's players. Woz/ARad/URad/Kerber, Woz/Azarenka/Chakvetadze, Hantuchova/Clijsters/Capriati, Serena/Woz/Kuznetsova, etc. etc. Their Twitter feeds are full of friendly chatter.

There is also some nastiness, of course. But that's to be expected, for the reasons you outlined above. Add in the fact that some of the domineering parents on the Tour have explicitly barred their kids from making friends with other players, and it's a wonder we don't see actual Manos-esque brawling on court.

[Tshooter]

"Daniel Koellerer. He was banned from tennis for life for supposed match fixing, although the tennis authorities have never told the public which matches he is supposed to have fixed"

He fixed the 1987 Wimbledon final when he was still in diapers. As well as the 2003 USO final. He may have had a hand in fixing Nadal's 2nd round match at W this year. Though Lendl was obviously involved.

[jones101]

They all look friendly enough off court to me.

[Sentinel]

Originally Posted by OldFedIsOld

Most pro players mutually respect each other as long as they didn't try anything dirty like pull an MTO at an important time or cheat on line calls. Crazy Dani is probably the only person I can think on tour(banned now) who was hated by everyone.

The only friends of Federer I can think of on tour are Wawrinka, ljubicic, Gasquet, and Monfills. There are probably more but I can't be 100% certain with their relationship with him.

Edit: Tommy Haas as well

Perhaps you could throw in Blake as well.
Is Safin there ? Hewitt ?

What of the fan category such as Goffin, Seppi, Mahut...

[millicurie999]

I think real friendship is rare now because all the top players have their entourages. In the old days, players travel on their own without their coaches and practise with each other. I just saw a documentary about Matrina and Chris, they apparently have been close friends (with a cooling period). They even practised together on the day of their French Open final against each other.

[joeri888]

Originally Posted by OldFedIsOld

Most pro players mutually respect each other as long as they didn't try anything dirty like pull an MTO at an important time or cheat on line calls. Crazy Dani is probably the only person I can think on tour(banned now) who was hated by everyone.

The only friends of Federer I can think of on tour are Wawrinka, ljubicic, Gasquet, and Monfills. There are probably more but I can't be 100% certain with their relationship with him.

Edit: Tommy Haas as well

Didn't he say something about another german, Kohlschreiber or Mayer or someone as well. Roger's a lot older. He's been a bit on his own with his family for the past 4 or 5 years. Before that, he had a lot of friends on tour I think.

[-RF-]

Azarenka Radwanska are close friends, as are radwanska and woz.

Pova is said to be very distant from the rest

[hedera]

I remember Sharapova once saying how she couldn't be friends with her opponents. It was something like, how can you fight against someone on the court and then go out for dinner with them.
I mean, look at Roger's friends mentioned above. It's not like they're some threat to him tennis wise. The ATP top 4 are not that close for a reason. Well, Rafa and Andy kinda are but it reflects on their rivalry.

[Aonex]

Sharapova is probably the exception, early on she never got along with the Russians, who were all close to one another... probably just got used to doing her own thing.