An Interview with Ms. Chris Evert, professional tennis champion and publisher of "Tennis" magazine

Among the questions that I might have asked Ms. Chris Evert, if I had been given the opportunity to conduct a freelance interview with herself, are:

---Many people are not aware that your ancestry is partly Luxembourgian, according to the Wikipedia online encyclopedia biographical profile on yourself. During your career on the tennis circuit when you competed at tennis tournaments in Luxembourg, did it feel special for you to sense that some of the tennis fans in that northern European nation could identify you as being a Luxembourgian-American player?

---Do you have a favorite Luxembourgian culinary dish, and did you ever celebrate one of your victories at a professional women's tennis touranment in Luxembourg by ordering that dish in a restaurant there?

---Of the various towns or cities or rural areas where you competed at a professional tennis tournament in the 1970s or 1980s, which town or city or rural areas were the most beautiful, in your opinion?

---Of all the tennis tournaments in which you competed professionally as a player in the 1970s or 1980s, which tennis tournament featured the most pleasant fragrance from plants or flowers or trees that you could actually enjoy sniffing or smellling during your tennis match?

---Did you ever compete at a professional tennis tournament situated so close to a grove of orange trees in bloom that you felt exhilarated by the phenomenally enjoyable fragrance of those orange blossoms during your match? If so, did that very olfactory exhilaration you experienced ever distract you at all during that particular match of yours, which I assume must have taken place in South Florida.

---Of all the countries of the world where you competed in singles matches at professional tennis tournaments, which five countries were your all-time favorites in which to compete professionally?

--Is there any country of the world where you did not enjoy competing at professional tournaments when you traveled to that country during your career as a professional tennis player?

--Is there any country of the world, or any particular state or province or county or city or town, for that matter, where you yourself declined to yourself ever on any occasion, or ever again in the future, compete at a tennis tournament there?

---Many people regard you as being perhaps the leading exponent of the baseline style of play in tennis. Would you agree with those who say that you have contributed more than any other player in the entire history of tennis toward promoting the baseline style of play in tennis matches?

---Some people refer to the "baseline style of play" in women's tennis as if you were the very first famous female tennis player to have played and promoted that style. In fact, though, Nancy Ritchy Gunter (sp?) of the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas was famous for her baseline style of play long before you became a nationwide celebrity at the U.S. Open in the early 1970s. And Maria Bueno of Brazil and Francois Durr of France were each quite successful with the baseline style of play before you came on the scene. So please let me re-phrase the question. With the notable exceptions of serve-and-volley players Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Wendy Turnbull, and Rosey Cassals, do you know of ANY female player before your own 1970s debut on the pro tennis scene who DID NOT herself play the baseline style of tennis?

---The first-rate magazine that you publish, "Tennis" magazine, has referred to a serve-and-volley style of tennis as "old school tennis." Does that imply that you regard what Pete Sampras was doing in the 1980s and 1990s, with his serve-and-volley emphasis at tournamnets, or what Margaret Court or Billie Jean King were doing, with their serve-and-volley style in the 1960s and 1970s, as a style of play that cannot be successful in the tennis scene of today?

---How would you respond to the criticism by serve-and-volley proponents that the baseline tennis player is vulnerable to drop shots and to drop volleys from the opponent, and that only a very fast baseline player with outstanding anticipation can be fully successful at professional tournaments, in the view of those critics of the baseline style.

---With the baseline style of play, doesn't it make a player vulnerable to windy conditions during that tennis match?

----During your career as a pro tennis player in the 1970s and 1980s, wasn't there ever any professional singles match of yours in which you found it very difficult to keep the ball in the court, since the extreme windiness worked against you as a baseliner that day?

---Under which conditions, if any, do you believe that an outdoor professional tennis match should be suspended in the middle of that match because the windy conditions had made continuation of that match unfair and unreasonable, in your opinion?

---Were there any notoriously windy cities, and Chicago, Illinois, has a reputation that way, where you insisted that any tournaments you entered in that city or metro area must be held indoors only, or you would not agree to enter that tournament. Or did you ever attempt to impose an "indoors-only" requirement on any of the tennis tournament organizers who were inviting you to compete there?

----Do you believe that every line judge and umpire at a pro tennis tournament should have a wind meter available to himself at all times that allows him to decide whether the velocity and direction of the wind is too severe for a pro tennis match to continue?

---During the 1970s, as you may recall, American commentators of your live tennis matches on television would frequently comment to their television audience that "some people regard Chris Evert's style of play as boring." The same television commentator would invariably add that he himself regards that criticism of your style of play as having been unfair. More recently, you either wrote in "Tennis" magazine or were quoted on television as saying that professional tennis players of today are, in fact, paid entertainers. Do you also believe that each professional tennis player of today should feel honorbound to vary up his or her shot selections in order to be "interesting" and "entertaining"?

---You are world-famous in part as an exponent of the cross-court style of rallying. Unlike many of the professional tennis players of today, you only occasionally, such as one of every eight shots from yourself, would hit the tennis ball down the line during your tennis matches of the 1970s and 1980s. Your cross-court emphasis increased your chances of hitting the ball within the court on the other side of the net. Also, your style of hitting cross court made it easier for your shots to clear the net. So tell me, why do you think the professional tennis players of today so often defy that percentage-shot strategy that you followed so diligently for many years? Do you think they possibly regard it as "more entertaining" to hit a down-the-line shot on a frequent basis during a match?

---Do you regard the failure to consistently hit the tennis ball cross-court as one of the top five mistakes that professional tennis players and amateur tennis players of today are making in their tennis matches?

---As tactful as you have been in your role as a television commentator on professional tennis matches of today, do you ever wish you could devote more emphasis to the unforced-error rate by each of the female tennis players you are commenting on? I raise this question because during your own career as a professional tennis player, you had one of the lowest unforced error rates of any player. And unforced errors by professional tennis players of today must irk you or annoy you or embarrass you at times.

---When you are asked to talk about a pro tennis player of today whom others are calling a 'great champion', do you believe that term should only apply to players who have achieved an average unforced error rate below a certain specified percentage in their professional tennis matches? What should that threshold be, from your vantage point?

---You must wince on occasion when you see a professional tennis player running around his backhand in order to hit a forehand from the ad court side of that player's tennis court. I believe that the tennis champions Rafa Nadal of Spain and, in a prior decade, Steffi Graf of Germany, habitually run around their backhand in order to hit a forehand shot from the ad court. When he does that, do you ever think to yourself, "I wish that Rafa would hit that instead as a backhand shot, and would pivot properly when he hits that backhand." Do you, in fact, regard it as bad form for a tennis player, no matter how great, to run around a backhand in order to hit a forehand shot from the ad court? Would you, in fact, clasify that as one of the top 10 errors that professional tennis players of today are committing during their matches?

---When a professional tennis player runs around his backhand in order to instead hit a forehand from the ad court, doesn't that player put himself in a vulnerable position strategically? Doesn't the player hitting a forehand from the ad court give their opponent the opportunity to hit a sharply-angled cross-court to the deuce court side for a winner? Also, doesn't a player who runs around their own backhand in order to hit a forehand shot convey the very awkward implicit message to the opponent that "I am not confident about my backhand in tennis, and this is why I am trying to avoid hitting a backhand during this this rally we're having."

---During a 1970s professional indoor tennis tournament in California in which you competed against Martina Navratilova in what I believe was probably a finals-round match, the crowd began to "boo" and "hiss" at both you and Ms. Navratilova after you and Martina repeatedly "slow-balled" your shots to each other, with each of you hitting slow-paced arching shots for a minute or two of a very long rally. Finally, either you or Martina appeared to react to the crowd's booing and hissing by either hitting the ball out or hitting the ball into the net.

This was a moment from your career in which the crowd at that California tournament appeared to convey their collective opinion that they did not find either you or Martina Navratilova to be "entertaining" during that particular rally of your finals match. Did it hurt your feelings that day to sense that the crowd in California was bored and irked by that particular rally, which might explain why I believe it was you who appeared to let the crowd get to you during that rally and I believe it was you who lost that particular point after one of the longest rallies I ever saw featuring yourself and Martina Navratilova in a ladies' singles tennis match.

---Billie Jean King reportedly told the news media in the 1970s that she loves it when the crowd reacts loudly and in a very vocal manner toward the players during a tennis match. This raises the question, though, of whether you believe there should be a limit on a crowd's shouting or booing or hissing, for instance, during a rally or during a game, for that matter.
I don't believe that Billie Jean King ever cited ANY context in which she herself objected to expression of "free speech" of any type from the spectators at a tennis tournament. Do you differ from Billie Jean King in that way? Would you prefer that the spectators refrain from ever booing or hissing a player or shouting at a player in the middle of a point being played, for instance?

---What about when the fans shout obscenities at players during a tennis match? Since shouting an obscenity at a player from the stands might be illegal, depending on the nation where the tennis match is being played, would you be pleased if a law-enforcement officer were to arrest a fan, such as at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, who hurls profane speech at a player during a match?

---When a spectator at a pro tennis match throws a banana or egg or other item onto the court or near the tenis court where the match is being played, do you believe that that point should automatically be replayed, regardless of whether the players in that match say that their own concentration was hurt by the hurled object.

---When a spectator at a pro tennis match knowingly and willfully throws an object or item onto that tennis court, do you believe that that spectator should be immediately arrested by police and charged with a crime? If so, what would that crime be, in your opinion?

---When you competed at the U.S. Open in the 1970s or 1980s, a television commentator emphasized that you yourself were concentrating so intensely during your matches there that you did not even hear the sounds of commercial airline jets flying above the stadium where you were playing your matches. Is that true, that you could completely tune out that tpe of background noise during all of your tennis matches at the U.S. Open pro tennis tournament?

---In the 1970s and 1980s, American television commentators would frequently comment during coverage of one of your singles matches that you perspire only minimally during your matches. Was that a correct report about you? If so, do you believe that your ability to avoid sweating or perspiring much during your singles matches helped you to concentrate as a player?

---Did your ability to minimize perspiration during your pro tennis matches in the 1970s and 1980s also help you hit the ball more consistently than did the other players, since you almost never lost your grip on your racquet handle from your palm becoming sweaty. Is that correct?

---When you think of the various pro tennis players ever since the 1970s who had the most difficulty keeping a firm grip on their racquet because they perspired so heavily during a match, are there any men or women who especially come to mind for you?

---What advice would you offer to an amateur player or professional tennis player who perspires heavily during a tennis match, and has difficulty gripping their racquet during a rally or volley?

---Did you ever hear an opponent of yours from a ladies' singles professional tennis match complain to you after that match that "you didn't even sweat during our match, which demoralized me quite a bit, since I was perspiring heavily on my side of the net!"

---If I remember correctly, some of your professional tennis matches at Wimbledon near London, England, featured moments of misty rainfall. Did you ever sense that rainfall of any type during a point at Wimbledon actually hindered your or your opponent's abiilty to win a rally or point or game? Did you ever sense that competition at Wimbledon featuring misty rainfall was unfair to both players?

---Do you yourself believe that play during a match at Wimbledon should be suspended immediately after misty rainfall occurs?

---After you lost a finals match to Hana Mandlikova in the U.S. Open pro tennis tournament in New York State or in Philadelphia in 1985, and I forget which of the two, you told a newspaper reporter that you lost that match because "I (Chris Evert) am not a machine," or words to that effect. Was there anything about Hana's style of play in that match that possibly undermined your concentration or irked you?

---As you will no doubt remember, American television commentators in the 1970s repeatedly noted during your televised tennis matches that it made you nervous when your kindly father, Jimmy Evert, was among the spectators in the stands that day. Was that an accurate statement about your feelings, and if so, did you also sense that it actually hurt your concentration during a match if your father was watching you from the stands?

---Of all the coaches whom you consulted or hired to offer you guidance in your career, which coach do you believe was your finest? Was that your father, Jimmy Evert, or was that Dennis Ralston, a professional tennis player from the United States, or was it someone else?

---During a 1970s nationally-televised finals-round match you had against Evonne Goolagong of Australia, a match won by Evonne that took place at a country club in Brookline, Massachusetts, one of the American television commentators volunteered to viewers that your boyfriend in the stands, Jimmy Connors, had told the news media that he did not have any advice to offer you on your tennis game. Jimmy Connors reportedly told the news media that you play the game so well that it would not be appropriate for Jimmy Connors to advise you on your own tennis game. Was it that way with Jimmy Connors? Did he decline to ever offer you any advice on how you could improve your own tennis game in the 1970s or 1980s?

---Do you think it was a complete and sheer coincidence that the very first man you were engaged to be married to, Jimmy Connors, had the exact same first name as your own beloved father, Jimmy Evert? Were there, in fact, any major similarities between Jimmy Connors and your father, Jimmy Evert, that possibly played a role in your emotional bond with Jimmy Connors over a multi-month period in the 1970s?

---When you and Jimmy Connors planned your wedding ceremony in the 1970s, did you both agree to have a tennis-shaped wedding cake at your wedding? Or was there some other tennis motif that the two of you agreed upon as the two of you planned your wedding?

---When you called off your planned marriage to Jimmy Connors in the 1970s, did your own kindly mother, Claudette Evert, possibly influence your decision on that? Was your mother posssibly concerned that Gloria Connors of Belville, Illnois, might possibly be too domineering and intrusive as your mother-in-law? If you chose not to marry Jimmy Connors partly or primarily because you had concerns about Gloria Connors, did you later wonder whether possibly you might have wronged Jimmy Connors by rejecting him because you were possibly not fond of his mother?

---When you and Jimmy Connors announced plans to get married back in the 1970s, did you ever sense that many Americans looked upon your expected marriage to each other as the "Love Match of the Century," if you will, and that those same Americans were therefore all the more disappointed when this grand opportunity for tennis-theme puns about the two of you being the "Love Match of the Century" suddenly fell to the wayside after the marriage plans were canceled.

---Before your romantic relationship with Jimmy Connors in the 1970s, do you know of any other famous romantic couple from the professional tennis world of prior years who were both outstanding pro tennis players?

---Looking back, did your cancellation of your planned wedding to American tennis champion Jimmy Connors comprise the single biggest turning point in your entire life? Is it true that someone's forgetting to buy rice to toss at you and Jimmy during your wedding ceremony was the reason why both cited for an initial postponement of your wedding that later resulted in a cancellation of your wedding altogether. Did you look upon the missing rice as conveying a deeper message about you and Jimmy Connors possibly not being right for each other as marriage partners?

---Many people have no doubt commented to you on how well you get along with your brother John Evert. In fact, the two of you work closely together as business partners in presiding over your Evert tennis academy in Florida. In view of the fact that your own relationship with your brother John has apparently been harmonious throughout your life, have any friends or relatives of yours ever commented to you that you might have more success in your own romantic life if you found a prospective marrige partner for yourself who is more similar to your brother John than your three respective previous spouses whom you have divorced have apparently been?

---When you were interviewed by the American news media after you had lost a professional ladies' singles tennis match, you often would comment that you had not played "100 percent" of your capabilities during that match. In your entire career in the 1970s and 1980s, which one singles match you played was the match in which you believe that you made the fullest use of your capabilities and played either "100 percent" of your capabilities or possibly even better than your capabilities, such as through a "110 percent" performance by yourself throughout all or much of that match?

---When you competed against Margaret Court of Australia in televised tennis matches in the 1970s, television commentators would point out the success of your technique of hitting the ball low, so that the physically-tall Mrs. Court would have to reach down low in attempting to hit the ball. Was that a special strategy you pursued against Mrs. Court, or was this something that you consistently did against all of your opponents, regardless of whether they were tall or short in height?

---Would you be willing to cite specific strategies you pursued in the 1970s and 1980s that involved your changing or adjusting your own style of play from your normal style in order to attempt to win a singles tennis match against any given opponent who presented a special type of challenge for you.

---Do you ever get the impression that some professional tennis players of today are deliberately trying to play risky low-percentage tennis in order to elicit oohs and aahs of astonishment from spectators at a tennis tournament? Of the top 20 male and female players of today, which players do you personally regard as most frequently defiant of percentage tennis, or the statistically-proven logical and rational strategies for competing well during a tennis match?

----Looking back, is there any professional tennis match from your own past in which you would have chosen to go to the net more often, had you done it over again? I raise this question after recalling the very impressive success that baseliner Tracy Austin had by going to the net and volleying the ball against Martina Navratilova in the finals of the U.S. Open in 1981. Miss Austin won that finals match.

---In your own professional tennis matches of the 1970s and 1980s, which guidelines did you follow on when you felt it was appropriate for yourself go to the net and actually volley the ball from the net? Against which female player during singles matches did you find that you went to the net the most frequently?

---You have recently emphasized, and I believe it was in a column you wrote for "Tennis" magazine, that professional tennis players are entertainers. And yet, when I recall one of the professional tennis matches from your career in which you showed the most animated facial expression and even giggled betweeen points, I'm sure you would agree that your entertaining style during that match did not prove to be successful for you. I'm referring to a 1970s finals-round women's singles match featuring yourself and Miss Evonne Goolagong of Australia, a clay-court singles match between the two of you that took place at a prestigious country club in Brookline, Massachusetts. The television commentators repeatedly noted that during that televised match, you frequently were glancing toward your boyfriend in the stands, Jimmy Connors, and you were smirking at him as well as giggling with apparent amusement over your circumstances that day. Yet for all your entertaining moments between points during that match, it was painfully apparent to television viewers that your return of server against Miss Goolagong was almost invariably landing very close to the net on her side of the court. That, in turn, virtually invited Miss Goolagong to race to the net and take control of the point by volleying against you. Do you remember that particular loss you sustained at the hands of Miss Goolagong, and did you later look upon it as a lesson on the importance of striving for a stoic, disciplined, poker-faced style in your future matches?

---When a professional tennis player loses a tennis match, how often do you attribute that loss to romantic fantasies or distracting thoughts about his or her own romantic life that that player is in fact having that day? What advice would you offer a tennis player who finds it distracting when that player's boyfriend or girlfriend is sitting in the stands as a spectator?

---You have had an in-depth knowledge of the professional tennis scene ever since the 1970s. Over the course of the last several decades, do you sense that female professional tennis players and male professional tennis players have achieved progress in their ability to develop mutual-consent strictly-platonic personal relationships? What advice would you offer a tennis player, whether that be a professional player or an amateur player, on how to protect or strengthen his or her personal credibility as a prospective friend to a player of the opposite sex?

---In the summer of 1991, an American sports commentators stated during live coverage of a women's pro tennis match that Swedish professional tennis player Stefan Edberg had complained that many of the female professional players of the early 1990s were overweight. Was that observation by Stefan Edberg helpful to the female tennis players during that time period, and did he make some personal friends from among the female players who went on successful diets or lost weight during that time period? Do you regard that crticism of many of the women's players of the early 1990s as fair criticism by Stefan Edberg of Sweden?

---In the period since the early 1970s, has there ever been any public criticism of women's professional tennis by a male professional tennis player that you personally disagreed with or resented?

---Have you ever heard any public criticism of the men's professional tennis scene by a female professional tennis player that you yourself regarded as valid or reasonable? I raise this question because I myself don't recall having heard or read criticism of professional men's tennis players or the professional men's tennis scene by any female professional tennis player.

---Many people will always remember you for the bold shot selection you chose at match point against Miss Evonne Goolagong of Australia in a finals-round singles match at Wimbledon in the 1970s. You completely surprised your opponent, and possibly the entire world, by deploying a successful top-spin lob that soared over the head of Evonne at a time when she was at the net expecting to volley a more conventional passing-shot from yourself. Can you think of any other professional tennis matches from the 1970s and 1980s when you would have tried hitting a topspin lob against your opponent, had you done it over again?

---Observers of yourself in the 1970s frequently commented that you consistently hit the ball flat. Of the female players of today on the circuit, which one player hits the ball flat the most frequently? What is the advantage to hitting the ball flat, rather than with topspin, in your opinion, and would you like to see more of the players of today hitting the ball flat during their rallies?

---It's a well-known fact that you liked to hit a slightly sliced backhand down the line on those rare occasions when you did not hit a backhand shot cross-court during a singles tennis match of yours in the 1970s or 1980s. That slightly-sliced backhand down-the-line shot appeared to be the one shot you hit the most frequently that was not a strictly-flat shot. Is that correct? Also, did you find that hitting a backhand down the line with a slight slice to that shot often surprised your opponent, since your opponent was so accustomed to facing flat shots from you?

---You once commented to a newspaper reporter that Bjorn Borg of Sweden was the male tennis player whose style of play and on-court demeanor you identified with the most. However, Bjorn Borg almost always hit the ball with lots of topspin, and you consistently hit the ball flat. Would it be more accurate to say, with the benefit of handsight, that Jimmy Connors's style of hitting the ball during rallies was possibly more similar to your own, in that he also hit the ball flat? Or were you in fact comparing your on-court temperament to that of Bjorn Borg, when you stated to the news media that he reminded you of yourself?

---You were frequently described by American sports reporters in the 1970s and 1980s as a "poker-faced" player during your professional singles tennis matches. Did you, in fact, have any prior experience at playing the card game of poker during your leisuretime? Did you win a lot of those poker games involving cards, and was it through playing poker that you developed your patented "poker-faced" style that you later exhibited so successfully on the tennis court.

----Did you regard "poker-faced" as a fair description of your on-court demeanor during your professional tennis matches in the 1970s and 1980s? Of the other professional tennis players, was it Bjorn Borg or Andrea Jaeger or some other player during that period who most struck you as having a "poker-faced" style during their own professional tennis matches?

---Your stated personal identification in a previous decade with Bjorn Borg, a Swedish player, raises the question of whether you believe that it is acceptable for an American tennis fan to root for a player from a foreign nation at a tennis tournament, even when that foreign tennis player is competing against an American tennis player in a match.

---When the Swedish-born tennis champion Bjorn Borg reportedly attempted to commit suicide in the late 1980s or early 1990s, did you respond to that shocking news by sending him a sympathy card or get-well card, based in part on your own personal affinity for Bjorn? If so, do you remember what you wrote in that greeting card you sent to Bjorn Borg during that period of crisis in his own life?

---Is Bjorn Borg the only current or former professional tennis player from the modern era you've ever known about who attempted to commit suicide? If not, would you like to see some independent foundation sponsor a new sociological study that examines what might explain why more than one current or former professional tennis player in the period since the 1970s reportedly attempted to commit suicide?

---Is it ever unpatriotic or anti-American, in your opinion, for an American citizen watching a professional tennis match to root for a foreign player over an American player? I raise this question partly because there must have been many occasions when you yourself watched Bjorn Borg compete against an American player in a singles match in the 1970s or 1980s, and you found yourself hoping that Borg, a player you identified with quite a bit, would win that match.

---Is the United States the only country in the entire world where, when a player from the United States is facing an opponent from a foreign country in a pro tennis match in the States, a significant share of the fans in the stands might root for the foreign player over the American player. Do you know of any other country where a foreign player facing a citizen of that host country in a singles match might attract a significant amount of fan support.

--Many people have commented on the fanaticism of the tennis fans at the U.S. Open near New York City, New York. This prompts the inevitable question of whether you can recall any professional tennis tournament where you believe that the fans are unfairly hostile toward visiting players from other countries who compete at that tournament. If so, do you believe that the governing tennis organizations should do anything to promote greater fairness toward all players by fans at that tournament.

---Which countries of the world do you believe generally offer the most polite and appreciative tennis audiences in the way of spectators attending professional tennis tournaments? Would those nations be Australia, Japan, the United States, England, and Sweden, for instance?

---In which countries of the world where you competed in a tournament in the 1970s or 1980s do you feel that the spectators' level of respect toward the female professonal tennis players was as great as, or almost as great as, the spectators' level of respect toward the male professional tennis players?

---Which countries of the world do you believe account for a disproportionately high percentage of all of the most polite and honest and gentlemanly or ladylike pro tennis players of today? Would Australia and Sweden, for instance, rank near the very top from that standpoint? Or would you instead cite Switzerland or Belgium, from that standpoint?

--Many people have commented on the decline in the overall caliber of profesional tennis players from Australia since the 1970s. Have you been disappointed by that apparent decline from the "Down Under Continent" during the multi-decade period since the glory days for Australia when great champions like Laver and Rosewall and Emerson and Newcomb and Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong and Wendy Turnbull and Dianne Fromholtz triumphed so frequently.

---One of the finest serve-and-volley players whom you faced in pro tennis matches, Czech native Hana Mandlikova, emigrated to Australia at some point in her career. Did you sense that Hana's relocation to Australia as her "home base" improved the caliber of her game or hindered her, from what you can recall?

--Of all the world-famous professional tennis players who were immigrants from a foreign nation, would you rank Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova as the two finest players ever to have been born in one country, then emigrated to another at some point during or before their pro-tennis career.

--Which nation in the entire world do you believe has the finest overall system or network for promoting the education of children and teenage youths who seek to learn to play the wonderful lifelong sport of tennis. Is there any way in which you wish that the United States could improve its own tennis-education and tennis-promotion system on a nationwide basis?

---Of all the tennis audiences you have competed in front of at a professional tennis tournament in the 1970s or 1980s, which one professional tennis tournament featured the audiences or audience who had the greatest in-depth knowledge of the game of tennis, in your opinion? Did you find it very gratifying and exhilarating, even, to compete professionally in front of tennis fans who themselves knew the sport of tennis and the history of tennis so thoroughly that you found yourself in awe of their own knowledge of the game?

---Do you feel that American society could benefit from proposed establishment of an "American Tennis Archives and Library and Museum" somewhere in this country? I raise this question partly because, as you must be very aware, in-depth knowledge of and factual research about the sport of tennis plays a major role in fostering a successful tennis-education program in a country.

---Do you feel that Americans who love tennis should each strive to establish a personal or family tennis library inside their own private residence? I am referring to a tennis-books library and tennis-videos library inside one's own home that can help to educate and inspire amateur tennis players as well as professional players on a year-round basis.

---Have you ever seen or read or heard about a "Tennis Almanac" factual one-volume reference book that was published in the English language?

---Would you like to see every tennis player and every tennis fan in the entire United States have the opportunity to purchase and add to their own household library inside their home a "Tennis Almanac" that provides comprehensive and up-to-date factual information, including profiles on each of the most noteworthy tournaments and each of the most noteworthy current or former players.

I am referring to the type of almanac that for each noteworthy player would cite his or her career record against each of his or her singles-tennis opponents or doubles-tennis opponents. The "Tennis Almanac" to which I refer would also offer dozens of quotable observations and anecdotes about tennis and tennis players that have been written or offered at some point in tennis history. For instance, I once read that Jimmy Connors learned to focus on the tennis ball during his matches by developing his personal attiude he chose to develop that he hates the tennis ball. It is likely that some quotation about Jimmy Connors's chosen attitude toward the tennis ball could be included in that famous tennis-scene quotations section of a "Tennis Almanac." I'm also reminded that from what I once read, Billie Jean King practiced focusing on the tennis ball during her rallies by staring at a tennis ball for several consecutive hours without interruption. That type of "anecdote" about Billie Jean King's approach to honing her tennis game might be intriguing.

---Do you believe that the sport of tennis has a need for more in the way of beautiful hardbound books about tennis that look nice on a coffee table, and that trigger lots of interest and conversation. For instance, would you like to see a new hardbound photo-illustrated book that exclusively profiles each of "The Majors" tournaments of professional tennis. I am referring, of course, to the Italian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, the Australian Open, and the U.S. Open.

---Would you also like to see new reference books about tennis with titles such as, "The Quotable Tennis Player" or "The Quotable Tennis Coach." Each of those reference books might exclusively contain real-life quotations from tennis players and coaches, respectively.

----Of the various autobiographies by former or current professional tennis players, which do you like the best? I raise this question partly because I remember how much I myself benefited as an amateur player from reading the respective autobiographies written by Donald Budge, Billie Jean King, and Margaret Court, respectively. I began to read your own autobiobgraphy, incidentally, but I regret to say that circumstances in my own life during that period of the 1980s somehow prevented me from finishing your very fine autobiography.

---One of my favorite fantasies as an amateur tennis player is to obtain a videotape of each of the finest tennis matches between Australians Evonne Goolagong (Evonne Goolagong Cawley, as she was known after she got married) and Margaret Court. I myself don't recall having ever watched any of the singles matches between those two very talented Australian tennis players.

I also would enjoy obtaining a videotape of each of the professional tennis matches between Billie Jean King and Tracy Austin, since they were two of the toughest competitors in the entire history of women's tennis. I would also enjoy watching videotapes of the finest matches played by Adriano Panatta of Italy and Sue Barker of England, respectively. Unfortunately, neither Adriano Panatta nor Sue Barker appeared on American television much, so I don't recall having watched any singles tennis matches featuring either of those two European players. Do you yourself happen to know of any tennis-matches videotape sales mail-order business that could provide me with each of those types of tennis-match videotapes?

---Many people no doubt commented on the fascinating interplay between yourself and Evonne Goolagong, whenever the two of you competed against each other. Your own style was described by television commentators of the 1970s as very disciplined and methodical and consistent, while Evonne's style of play was described as very limber and quick-footed and spontaneous. Would you agree that the chemistry, if you will, between yourself and Evonne Goolagong during tennis matches made for a very entertaining match whenever you competed against each other?

---You once commented on television, during an interview with television show hostess Dinah Shore, that you preferred competing against Margaret Court of Australia, rather than Evonne Goolagong. During that interview, you explained that Margaret Court hit the ball with so much power from her end of the net that you didn't have to provide much power of your own in returning her shots. With Evonne Goolagong, by contrast, you commented to Dinah Shore in that television interview that Evonne hit the ball very softly, and this forced you to put lots of your own muscle power into each of your shots against Evonne. Were there any other reasons why you preferred competing against Margaret Court over yourself competing against Evonne Goolagong in a ladies' singles match?

---Margaret Court, as you of course know, was world-famous for being possibly the most devoutly religious of all the Christian players on the ladies' tennis circuit in the 1960s and 1970s. Did Mrs. Court ever ask you to attend a church service with her as a guest of hers? I ask that question because it is possible that Mrs. Court was Protestant and might have had an understandable desire to introduce you to her Protestant religion. For that matter, during your career in the 1970s and 1980s, did any of the professional tennis players or coaches ever attempt to convert you to their own religion?

---Margaret Court in her 1970s autobiography referred to you as "that sensational American teenager." Do you still feel like a teenager, even today? And do you still feel sensational, even today? Also, do you remember any kind words of public praise for yourself that were ever on any occasion verbalized or written by your rival Evonne Goolagong?

---Do you know of any school or college or university anywhere in the United States that currently offers a "Tennis History" academic course or a "Tennis in American Society" academic course or any other out-of-the-ordinary academic course primarily relating to tennis?

---Back in the 1970s, as you may recall, one particular male expert on the history of women's tennis was cited many times by American television commentators during live coverage of professional women's tennis matches. I don't recall the name of that cited "leading historian of women's tennis." I refer to that tennis historian of the 1970s because I would like to ask you if you could tell me which persons of the 21st Century would currently qualify as being the top five leading historians of women's tennis, in your opinion? Who would you cite as being the top five historians of men's tennis, for that matter?

---Do you wish that the U.S. Presidents and First Ladies would do more to help promote the lifelong and healthful sport of tennis? I raise this question partly because the only two U.S. Presidents or First Ladies of the modern era whom I myself can recall as having been avid tennis players were Jimmy Carter and George Bush Sr. Is that your own recollection as well from what you have read or learned about the U.S. Presidents ever since President Truman?

---Do you believe that the President of the United States should establish a tradition of annually presiding over a White House ceremony honoring each of that year's NCAA national singles and doubles champions in tennis?

---It seems to me that your own well-publicized close personal friend in the White House, President Gerald Ford, a staunch Republican gentleman, swam in a swimming pool on a regular basis. However, I don't recall seeing any photographs of himself playing tennis. Is that a correct recollection about President Ford? Or did you manage to persuade your friend Gerald Ford to play some tennis during his White House years?

---As a staunch Republican yourself, did you ever find it frustrating to be competing in a professional tennis tournament in a foreign country during a primary election or general election or other election in the U.S. in which you wanted to vote? Did you cast your ballot by mailing one in on an absentee basis?

----Which U.S. state do you believe would be the most appropriate state where a proposed "American Tennis Archives and Library and Museum" should be situated? Would that state be New York, where the United States Tennis Association is headquartered; Florida, where the largest number of the top professional American tennis players generally live; Rhode Island, where the Tennis Hall of Fame is already situated at Newport in that state; Texas; Virginia; California; or some other state.

---In your own career as a professional tennis player, how helpful to you was your in-depth study of the history of tennis? I raise this question after recalling the occasion in 1981 or 1980 when you expressed your personal incredulity to a newspaper reporter that your finals-competition singles opponent at Wimbledon that year, Ms. Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia, did not recognize the faces or names of several of the women's singles-competition tennis champions from earlier eras who were each highlighted through photographs or sketches on display at Wimebledon.

----As you may recall, Ms. Billie Jean King once observed about you that she knew you were going to become a future champion of women's professional tennis after she noticed that you chose against pursuing sight-seeing of London during your first appearance at Wimbledon as a professional competitor there. Ms. King stated that she admired the way you devoted your leisuretime in London to pursuing practice sessions on a tennis court. Do you agree with Billie Jean King that a truly great champion is very disciplined in that way, and is someone who manages to resist the many sight-seeing temptations and fun social outings that a place like London can distract a player with in the middle of a tournament.

---If you could somehow travel through a time tunnel and have the opportunity to shake hands with a great tennis player from world history, male or female, whom you never met before at any time during your own lifetime, which player would you select for that meeting with yourself?

----You may recall that former American tennis champion Donald Budge wrote in his autobiography that Baron Gottfried von Crumm of Germany was a player of considerable valor and integrity whom Donald Budge admired quite a bit. According to Donald Budge, Baron Gottfried von Crumm would openly volunteer to a linesman or official presiding over his tennis match that Mr. von Crumm believed that his opponent should have been awarded the most recent point that was just played, even though it had been awarded instead to Baron von Crumm. From your own career as a tennis player in the 1970s and 1980s, did you yourself ever volunteer to the umpire at a tennis match in which you were competing that your opponent should have been awarded a point that was just played, even though she had not, in fact, been awarded that point.

---Many tennis fans vividly recall the well-publicized article about yourself that was highlighted on the front cover of "Tennis" magazine, I believe it was, back in the 1970s. That featured article was written by Alice Marble, who declared that you, Miss Chris Evert, had achieved the "perfect groundstroke." Did Alice Marble ever invite you to have tea or lunch or dinner with herself? If so, do you recall that speical meeting you had with one of the queens of American tennis from an earlier era?

---Miss Alice Marble in her evaluation of yourself for "Tennis" magazine in the 1970s emphasized, if I remember correctly, that you consistently hit the tennis ball from the sweet spot of your racquet strings. This raises the inevitable question of whether you sometimes resented the professional tennis players who either did not consistently hit the ball from the sweet spot of their racket strings, or who used a racquet, such as the Prince racquet, with an abornmally large head that expanded the size of the sweet spot. As you of course know, Pam Shriver of Silver Spring, Maryland, in the 1970s was among the professional tennis players who relied on the Prince metal racquet at tournaments. Did you ever think to yourself that what Pam Shriver was doing was "a bit like cheating, since she has more room for her sweet spot on her racquet head than I myself (Chris Evert) have with my own racquet. Pam doesn't have to hit the ball as precisely as I do, because of her massive sweet spot on her racquet head!"

---Who would you say have been the very finest gentlemen and the very finest ladies from the United States to have competed professionally in the sport of tennis? I raise this question partly because so much of the time the news media have publicized the "temper tantrums" and other unsportsmanlike conduct by American professional tennis players such as John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Billie Jean King, Andy Roddick, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams, for instance.

---To what extent do you see air pollution or noise pollution in the United States as a threat to professional or amateur tennis players, and to the sport of tennis---a sport that is, after all, primarily played outdoors.

---Do you believe it may be necessary to increase the percentage of all tennis courts in the United States that are indoor courts, in order to reduce tennis players' exposure to air pollution and noise pollution and to the increased risk of contracting skin cancer from playing outdoors during this era of ozone-layer depletion.

---At present, do you know what percentage of all public tennis courts in the United States are indoor courts? Do you happen to know what percentage of all privately-owned tennis courts in the United States are currently indoor courts?

---Do you happen to know how many of the indoor tennis court facilities in the United States are solar powered or wind-powered or otherwise primarily powered by a renewable enegy source, such as hydroelectric energy? In view of the growing need for reduced reliance on fossil fuels in the United States, do you believe the United States Tennis Association and professional tennis organizations should do more to help sponsor the conversion of existing indoor tennis court facilities into renewable-energy-powered tennis facilities?

---Would you like to see the United States set a fine example for the world by insisting that the U.S. Open professional tennis tournament at Flushing Meadows, New York, be the very first majors tournament in the entire world to be powered primarily by renewable energy sources?

---Have you ever seen a recent statistic on the total number of tennis courts, whether public or private, throughout the United States. Would you like to see that total number doubled? If so, do you believe that professional tennis champions should serve as advisers to tennis-court construction companies in the United States.

---Many Americans regard you as being virtually synonymous with clay-court tennis. As someone who especially enjoyed competing on clay courts during your career, would you like to see more even distribution of clay tennis courts throughout the United States? I raise this question because it seems likely that the clay tennis courts are currently concentrated in a handful of states. It seems unlikely that anyone wanting to play clay-court tennis in North Dakota or West Virginia or Utah, for instance, would currently have that opportunity in either of those states. This is just a guess on my part, since I haven't seen any factual report on distribution of clay-court tennis facilities throughout the United States.

---Would you support the propsoed establishment of an American Clay-Court Tennis Association that promotes and serves owners of clay-court facilities and clay-court players, amateurs as well as professionals, throughout this entire country?

---Do you believe that the United States Tennis Association should be the organization holding the responsibility of sponsoring an annual or biannual "census" of the total number of tennis courts, by county and state and nationwide, that are currently being used by amateur and professional tennis players.

---Do you regard it as a mistake when designers or builders of a tennis court complex fail to include a backboard area on the side where players can practice their ground strokes and serves on their own? I raise this question because it must disappoint you quite a bit to sense that many of the public tennis court complexes in this country, and possibly even some of the private tennis court facilities, do not feature a separate enclosed backboard area.

---Which of the tennis stadiums in the entire world that can accommodate at least 5,000 spectators do you believe are the best designed? Would you like to see some tennis-theme organization confer an award on the architects and engineers and construction firms that designed or built what you believe to be the best-designed tennis stadiums in the entire world.

---As an amateur tennis player in Texas, I have been told by some other amateur players that when rallying with them on a tennis court in a strictly for-practice-only context, I should never attempt to hit a winner against that practice partner. Is it true that going for a winner in that context in which no games are being played is a breach of proper tennis etiquette?

---Do you support increased scientific research to identify any new playing surfaces for tennis courts that orthopedic medical specialists and sports-medicine experts would agree are the safest and most healthful hard-court surfaces for professional tennis players? At present, is there an endowed non-profit tennis-promotion foundation that would have enough money to fund research of that type?

---Do you support compilation of am annual statistical medical-injury report that provides overall statistics on the incidence of each of the various types of medical problems that professional tennis players who are actively competing on the professional tennis circuit sustained during the most recent 12-month period? Would you support establishment of a new non-profit organization, such as a Tennis Health organization, that specifically seeks to help promote a reduction in the injury rate sustained by professional tennis players?

---Have you yourself ever retired from a pro tennis match during that match and cited an injury to yourself as the reason for your forfeiting the match that day? Do you remember how many times in your career, if ever, you retired from a pro tennis match during the match while citing a medical problem as your reason for forfeiting that match?

---Do you believe that all professional tennis players should be required to get semiannual or quarterly dermatological exams that are focused on identifying any signs of skin cancer that might be developing on those players? I pose this question because, from what I understand, skin cancer is the most preventable form of cancer, and early treatment of early symptoms of skin cancer can completely spare a tennis player from any risk of being medically harmed in any way.

---In view of the global warming effect and the accompanying increase in temperatures that professional tennis players face when they compete outdoors at tournaments, do you believe that professional tennis tournaments should all be required to provide a courtside thermometer that throughout that entire match measures the outdoor temperature that the players are enduring. The intent of an outdoor thermometer situated within full view of the umpire at that pro tennis match would be to give the umpire the option of suspending play until the temperature dropped beneath a set maximum-allowable temperature, whether that be 100 degrees Farenheit or 105 degres Farenheit or 95 degrees Farenheit.

---Which beverage do you personally believe is the most effective at protecting a professional tennis player any any risk of his or her suffering heat prostration during the middle or latter stages during an outdoor professional tennis match.

---Do you believe there should be annual and semiannual statistics compiled on the total number of occasions in which a professional tennis player in the middle of a pro tennis match has to be rushed from a tennis court to a hospital for emergency medical care? I raise this question partly because all of us vividly recalll the very dismaying incident in Germany in which a fanatical German fan rushed onto the court during a match between Steffi Graff and Monica Seles, and stabbed Monica in her back.

---Are you satisfied that security measures have been adequate in the period since that tragic assault on a Yugoslovian player, Ms. Seles, that no comparable incident will ever occur in the future at any pro tennis tournament.

----Looking back, do you have any reason to suspect or believe that Steffi Graf ever once made any unkind statement of any type to the German news media, or to the German people, about her arch-rival Monica Seles that might have possibly played a role of any type in that tragic attack on Monica by a male spectator at a tournament in Germany?

---The issue of physical assaults on players at tournaments inevitably also raises the issue of fans who seek to hug or embrace or kiss a professional tennis player in the middle of that player's tennis match.

Many of us vividly recall an incident at a tournament, and I believe it may have been a majors tournament such as the U.S. Open, in which a male adult fan of Rafa Nadal of Spain rushed onto the court and embraced Rafa in the middle of a match. Do you look upon that kind of physicality by fans as inappropriate and grounds for concern? Also, do you believe that all the professional tennis players should always have the option of NOT hugging or being hugged or kissed by fans, regardless of how ardently or passionately the fans admired that player?

---One of the alarming aspects of fans forcing a kiss or embrace upon a pro tennis players is the increased risk of a player getting herpes of the lip from a fan. Do you think the players' organizations should address this public-health issue facing the players at tournaments?

---Have you ever heard of any case in which any professional tennis player, male or female, was subjected to any form of sexual harassment or molestation or attempted rape or sexual rape by one or more other persons inside the cited pro tennis player's assigned locker room at a professional tennis tournament? If so, do you know why that case has not been widely publicized and reported on by the American news media?

---When I myself lived in southwestern Minnesota in the early 1980s and I visited a nightclub in Mankato, Minnesota, as a customer there, one of the male adult patrons in that nightclub stated to me on his own initiative that the women's professional tennis players during that time period habitually permitted single men to pick up those women's players and have one-night stands with them.

That male adult bar patron, who spoke with me inside the Albatross nightclub in Mankato in 1980 or 1981, even cited actual names of famous women's players of the early 1980s who, he said, were very receptive to having one-night-stands involving pre-marital sex with male fans. Without telling you the exact names of actual female players whom that nightclub patron cited to me in that first-ever conversation I had with him in 1980 or 1981, I would like to ask you a follow-up question. Does it bother you at all to sense that many of the male tennis fans, even today, are spreading rumors and gossip about female professional tennis players that insinuate that many of the women's players are allefgedly sexually promiscuous in connection with their globe-trotting careers in which those female players apparently stay in hotel rooms quite a bit and are regarded by many male fans as being "eager for action," if you will.

---If the global warming effect continues to worsen, would you support a reduction in the total number of sets that male professional tennis players competing in outdoor tennis tournaments would be expected to play in each match? Would you support a "best-of-three-set" format for men's as well as women's tennis matches at an outdoor tournament that features intense sunlight and temperatures above 90 degrees Farenheit.

---Have you ever known of any professional tennis player or former pro tennis player who contracted skin cancer? Do you believe that there's a need for more studies evalauting the incidence of skin cancer on the part of professional tennis players and former professional tennis players?

---Do you know of any professional tennis player of today who refuses to wear sun-screen lotion on his or her body when that player competes at an outdoor pro tennis tournament? Do you regard that player as being unwise in that way?

---Do you think the global warming effect, and the accompanying increased risk of a player contracting skin cancer from competing outdoors at tennis tournaments, is hurting recruitment of prospective new players for either the women's or men's professional tennis circuit?

---Do you believe there may be a need for professional tennis organizations or sponsors of professional tennis tournaments to offer a guaranteed minimum annual retirement income for the rest of their life to each and every player who competes in at least 10 tournaments per year for a minimum of five years, say? Do you like the idea of a guaranteed minimum annual retirement income for professional players after they have left the professional tennis circuit?

--If you support the concept of a guaranteed minimum annual income for former professional tennis players, what income level do you think would be fair? Should that guaranteed annual income to retired pro tennis players be $50,000 a year or $100,000 a year in American dollars, or should the annual retirement pay to former players be more than that, in your opinion?

---Do you sense that if the professional tennis organizations could offer more generous retirement benefits than at present to former players, this would help to attract a lot more new players into the professional tennis circuit? In raising that question, I must confess that I don't myself know what the current retirement packages are like, if any, that the players' organizations are offering to professional tennis players.

---Would you like to see the players' organizations sponsor more in the way of public-speaking engagements for current or former professional tennis players, in which they give public testimonials or public presentations in front of youths about what those professional players enjoyed the most or enjoy the most about competing professionally at tennis tournaments?

---Many people have been impressed by the strong speaking skills that you exhibit these days as a commentator at tennis matches. Did you hire a speech coach, and have you worked hard at improving your public speaking skills in the multi-decade period since you became a nationwide celebrity in the early 1970s when you reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open as a teenager.

---Many people have expressed admiration of the manner in which you politely defended your friend Jennifer Capriati of Florida after she received considerable notoriety in the news media for having consumed marijuana. Looking back on your friend Jennifer's tragic addiction to marijuana of several decades ago, do you believe taht the news media unfairly singled Jennifer out for media coverage?

---Do you know of any other professional tennis player ever since the 1960s who had an addiction to marijuana or some other illicit drug? I'm not expecting you to name names, of course. I guess my question on this is: What percentage of all professional tennis players of the modern era do you believe have been addicted to marijuana or cocaine or at least one other illicit drug for some portion of their career as a professional tennis player?

---Do you believe that each and every one of the professional tennis tournaments should require each and every player competing at that tournament, regardless of whether it is classified as a "major" tournament, must undergo a mandatory blood test and mandatory urine-sample test? I am referring to the type of player integrity test before and during a tournament that is designed to identify whether ANY of the players who had registered to compete at that tournament consumed any illicit drug or any other unauthorized drug at any time during the cited multi-day or multi-hour time period.

---Do you sense that any of the current professional tennis players who are competing at pro tennis tournaments are addicted to any illicit drug or any unauthorized licit drug? Which organization, if any, would you contact, or have you contacted, to offer a report of that type about a current player on the tennis circuit?

---Which of the professional tennis players of today who are actively competing at pro tennis tournaments have publicly spoken out against any and all illicit-drug activities? Would those admirable players be Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Andy Roddick, Rafa Nadal of Spain, Roger Federer of Switzerland, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, or some other current player?

---During the period of the 1970s and 1980s in which you competed professionally at pro tennis tournaments, did you ever directly observe any factual evidence, such as in the ladies' locker room or at post-tournament parties, that any of the professional women players were consuming any illicit drug or any unauthorized licit drug?

---In the entire period since the early 1970s, did you ever once directly hear or overhear a female professional tennis player or male professional tennis player boast or state within earshot of you at a tournament that she or he had just finished competing in a tennis match despite being "high on marijuana" or "high" on some other illicit drug or "drunk" from consumption of alcohol throughout that entire tennis match? Do you remember how you reacted to any such shocking disclosure from a professional tennis player? Did you politely reprimand that player by reminding her or him that her or his boast or confession was NOT grounds for pride, in your opinion?

---Do you believe that the professional tennis organizations should do more than they have in the past to define what comprises an unauthorized licit drug, the type of drug that no player should be permited to consume at any time during a professional tennis tournament or while preparing for a pro tennis tournament.

---Have you ever heard of any case in which a professional tennis player actually competed while under the influence of alcohol -- or any illicit drug, for that matter---at a pro tennis tournament?

---Have you ever been a commentator at a televised professional tennis tournament and been yourself mindful of holding your tongue, since you were inclined to announce to your television audience that "It looks like one of the players in the match today is suffering from a hangover, and that is why his performance today is so much less impressive than it normally would be. Unfortunately, some of the players of today habitually party and drink alcohol to celebrate a previous victory in an earlier round. But they forget that they will then be at risk of taking a hangover they incurred from that celebration into the very next round of pro tennis competition. And that is exactly what I suspect has occurred in the match we're watching right now. It's tragic that the player we see playing so badly today is a mere shadow of his style when he is playing at his normal caliber of play. I wish I could rush down there to the court and give that player a urinalysis test that gives immediate results. That would clarify four our entire television audience why his play is so substandard today."

---What estimated percentage of the professional tennis players of today do you believe are addicted to alcohol? Do you yourself suspect that the percentage of all professional tennis players competing at pro tennis tournaments who are alcoholic has increased since the 1970s when you first began competing at pro tennis tournaments?

---Do you regard addiction to gambling as a major problem among the men's profesional tennis players of the last several decades? As a devout Catholic woman yourself, do you find it alarming to learn that a talented male professional tennis player just squandered his most recent prize winnings because of his addiction to gambling during his leisuretime.

---Have you ever heard of any case in all of tennis history in which one professional tennis player secretly agreed in advance to "throw" a tennis match in which he had been scheduled to compete? I am referring to a professional tennis player, such as a player addicted to gambling who is heavily in financial debt, who possibly accepts an illegal bribe payment of money to himself from an opponent or a sponsor of an opponent of his, in exchange for his agreeing in advance to "lose" a scheduled match between the former individual and the latter player. We have all heard about cases like ths occurring in baseball in earlier eras, and it seems to me very likely that some financially-desperate professional tennis player of today might possibly be vulnerable to an illegal bribe offer from a competitor of his.

----During your own career as a professional tennis player, did anyone ever at any time offer you a payment of money or gift of any type with the advance understanding that you could only accept that money or gift if you agreed in advance to "lose" or "let the other player win" an expected finals-round match or or other important tennis match between yourself and a cited female opponent of yours. If any such bribe offer was ever made to you, how did you respond to it? Did you contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.? If the scheduled tennis match about which you were subjected to a bribery attempt was scheduled to take place in a foreign country, such as Germany or Canada or France or Great Britain or Russia, did you contact that country's counterpart to the F.B.I. in order to report that bribery attempt to a law-enforcement agency in that foreign nation?

---Do you believe that professional tennis players should be more vigilant about reporting evidence of criminal activities by other tennis players? For instance, if a law-abiding professional tennis player attends a party during or shortly after a tournament at which several other tennis players are observed smoking marijuana or snorting cocaine, should the law-abiding tennis player at that event immediately contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation and file charges against the other professional tennis players?

---Have you observed any evidence that any of the professional tennis players on the circuit today are vindictive toward or cruel toward any professional tennis player who somehow acquires a reputation among the other players for being a "NARC" or "snitch" or "cop" or "FBI agent"?

---Speaking of addictions, do you believe there's a need for more study about the societal problem of tennis fans becoming so obsessed with a professional tennis player that they attempt to stalk that player? I'm thinking of the Swiss player Martina Hingis, for instance. It must have been truly a nightmare for Martina Hingis to have been stalked by an American man who repeatedly harassed her and showed no respect for her own privacy rights. Do you regard that stalking case as very rare, or do you suspect that stalking of professional tennis players is more common than is being publicly acknowledged?

---Do you sometimes sense that if Martina Hingis of Switzerland had not been stalked by a criminal person, possibly Martina Hingis would have continued on the pro tennis circuit longer? I raise this question because, as you know, Ms. Hingis retired from professional tennis at a relatively young age.

---On the subject of stalking, I go the impression in the late 1990s that Swedish professional tennis player Stefan Edberg possibly had developed concerns of his own about spectators allegedly violating his own privacy rights. When I myself attempted to simply visit the official website of Stefan Edberg for the first time ever on my own personal computer inside my efficiency apartment near the University of Texas at Austin one day in the late 1990s, I was very surprised to receive the immediate message on my computer screen stating that I had been prohibited from myself ever entering Stefan's official website.
Since I had never met Stefan Edberg in person on any occasion, I found that late 1990s message on my computer screen very baffling. Do you get the impression that possibly Stefan Edberg of Sweden was worried during that time period that some amateur tennis players would somehow attempt to stalk himself? If so, do you happen to know how Stefan Edberg of Sweden might have obtained my own E-mail address in order to immediately and instaneously deny me entry into his official website, when I myself had never sent him my own E-mail address of hat time period with the texas.net Internet servcie provider. Also, I had never met Stefan Edberg on any occasion and I had never written to Stefan Edbverg of Sweden on any occasion.

---I find it very impressive that you yourself, by contrast, in January 1990 or December 1989 sent me a friendly reply letter to my mailing address in Big Spring, Texas, in which you cited your specific home address in south Florida as your return address on the front of the large envelope you used for mailing me that nice reply letter. I am referring to the nice photograph of yourself you mailed to me, which contained the exact message "Good Luck!" inscribed by you on that photograph of yourself hitting one of your famous two-fisted backhands. Do you have any thoughts on why you exhibited a lot more confidence in myself being a non-stalking, law-abiding, polite gentleman than nearly all of the famous people who have received a letter from me in the last several decades?

---Does it surprise you, in fact, to learn today during this interview that you are the ONLY world-famous person I can recall from my entire life, with the exceptions of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, who actually sent me a reply letter containing your specific home address as your cited return address on front of your envelope.

---Do you regard it as fair of me, in my life as an amateur tennis player, to myself feel more appreciative of the professional tennis players who actually sent me a friendly reply letter in response to a letter from myself. The only three players I've written to who actually sent me a friendly reply letter were yourself, Evonne Goolagong Cawley of Australia, and Rod Laver of Australia. I find it interesting that two of the friendliest professional players toward myself, based on those criteria, were themselves Australians.

---If you could rank the English-speaking nations of the world by level of friendliness toward yourself and ot hers, would you rank Australia above the United States, or number two after the United States? Or would you rank Ireland or Great Britain or Canada as possibly being friendlier than Australia, based on your own experience with those English-speaking nations?

---When you competed at professional tennis tournaments in the 1970s and 1980s, did you ever feel yourself to be more naked than you wanted to be in front of the many male spectators at those tournaments, possibly including male teenage youths, who appeared to be obsessed with or intrigued by your legs or your face or some other physical attribute of yours?

---Did it ever disappoint you when a male fan of yours approached you at a tennis tournament and immediately stated to you that he liked "your legs" or he liked "your bod," or something along those lines.

---Did it ever distract you or bother you at all during a tennis match of yours in the 1970s or 1980s to sense that some or many of the male spectators at that tournament were each holding binoculars focused on you, with many of those male spectators possibly loudly proclaiming to male friends of theirs they sat with that you are a "foxy" lady, or or that you are "adorable" or "sexy" or "very cute"?

---Did it ever bother you during your career on the tennis circuit to sense that 99 percent of the law-abiding American women who earn more than $100,000 a year in personal income are wearing a lot more clothes in their careeer pursuits than you yourself are.

---Would you support the establishment of a Pro Tennis Commissioner's position, with the understanding that the individual holding that very influential position of leadership over the pro-tennis scene could be a citizen of any nation of the world.

---Anyone watching the professional tennis tournaments on television senses that many of the ballboys and ballgirls providing assistance to professional players at those tournaments have romantic crushes on one or more of the competing adult players. As you of course vividly recall from American tennis history, the homosexual-identified male tennis player Bill Tilden was convicted of the crime of molesting under-age male ball boys and other male youths whom he apparently encountered at tennis tournaments. Do you suspect that pederatic involvements and intergenerational exploitation of younger persons by professional tennis players of today are, in fact, a continuing problem, even in the 21st Century? Or do you regard Bill Tilden's reprehensibly pederastic conduct of the early 1900s as having been a very rare anomaly from American tennis history that no other player since then has been guilty of?

---Do you sometimes wish that more of the professional tennis players of today had global reputations for being commendably moral and admirably law-abiding figures? I raise that question after recalling that one of your former competitors, Andrea Jaeger, established a non-profit organization designed to help youths who had been diagnosed as having a terminal illness. It seems likely that Andrea Jaeger has emerged as one of the leaing moral-mission figures from the American tennis scene of the 1970s and 1980s. And former tennis champion Mrs. Margaret Court of Australia is world-famous in part for her leadership over a Christian organization.

---When you reflect on Andrea Jaegar's noble humanitarianism of today, do you believe that the United States, the country she emigrated to, deserves major credit for having inspired her in that way? Or do you believe that her native country of Austria deserves greater credit than the U.S.A., for having instilled in Andrea her commendable moral values during her early childhood in that European nation? Or do you see Andrea's parents as the primary sources of inspiration for Andrea in her humanitarianism, so much so that you possibly sense that Andrea Jaeger would have been a great humanitarian leader in any country, regardless of where she had emigrated to or resided.

---Andrea Jaeger is also well known for having learned the sport of soccer during her youth. And so many of the tennis champions have excelled at other sports, too. One thinks of Bjorn Borg, who exceled at hockey before he took up the game of tennis. With yourself, I don't recall any feature article I've ever read that cited a "second" sport of yours that inspired great enthusiasm in you. Since you grew up in the seaside town of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was your own second-favorite sport, if you will, the sport of swimming? Or was it softball? If so, in which ways, if any, do you feel that your own style of play at tennis benefited from your previous success at swimming or softball, and I'm just guessing that it was possibly one of the two.

---Television tennis commentators of the 1970s frequently pointed your own two-fisted backhand was similar to the grip used by professional baseball players. Did you, in fact, experience a deeper affinity for professional baseball players than did most of the female tennis players from the United States? I'm assuming that you and your family during your childhood possibly attended some of the spring-training pro baseball practice games that took place in Florida. Is that correct?

---Before yourself, was Frew McMillan of South Africa the only world-famous pro tennis player you can recall who competed in matches using a two-fisted backhand? Frew was also famous, as I'm sure you are very aware, for hitting a two-fisted forehand. Was Frew, in fact, the inventor of the two-fisted backhand in tennis?

---Some observers have possibly compared Andrea Jaeger to Alice in Wonderland, that benevolent if befuddled female fictional character created by a British author. Did you ever get the impression that Andrea had the sort of kind-hearted innocence, possibly accompanied by naivetee, that most of us associate with Alice in Wonderland? I raise this question partly because you yourself took a personal interest in Adrea when she was five years old, as you may recall. You were quoted as saying that you were "in awe" of Andrea's tennis game at age 5, if I remember correctly what your exact words were when you were asked to comment on Andrea's tennis game at age 5.

---Are you among those tennis players who are critical of racquetball, possibly because of the many injuries that racquetball players sustain. Another inevitable question that arises: Of all the various sports, which sport other than tennis most reminds you of the sport of tennis? Would that other sport be table tennis, also known as ping pong? Would that other sport be racquetball or squash, for that matter?

---In the late 1970s, as you may recall, you reportedly told reporter Judy Klemesrud of "The New York Times" staff that you sought to "do good" in this world. That cited goal of yours suggests an inevitable question. Would you like to see the professional tennis tournaments do more than at present to recycle any and all waste products generated at those tournaments that can, in fact, be recycled? Would you also like to see tennis-ball recycling bins into which players at all levels, amateurs as well as profesionals, could dispose of tennis balls that are no longer playable.

---Do you regard the professional tennis community throughout the world as one of the leading forces on behalf of world peace? If so, do you have any personal anecdotes to offer about that important theme?

---Many people have no doubt commented on the noble mission of your Chris Evert Charities non-profit organization that you founded. Does that non-proit organization only serve teenage youths who are non-Anglo in racial identity, or does Chris Evert Charities help low-income youths of any and all ethnic and racial backgrounds? I raise this question partly because there must be many white youths of today who are raised in a low-income single-parent household in which the head of that household is their mother. Does Evert Charities help white youths living in poverty under those circumstances, or do you limit your organization's scope to helping African-American youths, Hispanic youths, Asian-American youths, and other non-Anglo youths?

---Your emphasis on "doing good" that you sucinctly cited to Judy Klemesrud of "The New York Times" in the late 1970s prompts an inevitable question. Do you sometimes sense that your famously friendly and mutually-beneficial personal relationship and career relationship with your brother, John Evert, has helped to inspire brothers and sisters throughout the entire world to get along better with one another?

---It often seems as if the tennis scene of today is highlighting either brotherly love or sisterly love quite a bit. The very solid and keen affinity between each of the Bryan brothers, a great men's doubles team, is nationally acclaimed. And the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, often emphasize their love for each other. The mutually-beneficial relationship between tennis commentator Patrick McEnroe and his world-famous brother, John McEnroe, is also well known and greatly admired. Do you agree, then, that you and your brother John are part of a remarkable global statement by the tennis community about the potential benefit from healthy personal relationshipad and career relationships involving persons from the same immediate childhood family.

---Speaking of relationships of that type, I found myself wondering in the late 1970s why you told the American news media that your sister, Jeannie, was "too short" to play professional tennis, in your opinion. I don't know exactly what Jeannie Evert's height was, but she was probably at least as tall as Rosie Casals, a Californian serve-and-volley player, during that same time period. Rosie Casals won a lot of her pro tennis matches. Looking back, do you have any regrets about your statements to th news media in 1979, I believe it was, that Jeannie Evert was too short to compete proefssionally at tournaments?

----When you competed against Mrs. Margaret Court during professional tennis tournaments, did you ever find yourself thinking to yourself internally, "My God, Margaret Court owns the entire tennis court, so it will be very difficult for me to win this match today! Her last name, Court, proclaims her to be the reigning queen of the entire tennis court scene!"

---Did you agree with former American tennis champion Donald Budge's written statement in the 1970s that in his stated opinion, Margaret Court of Australia was a greater tennis player than Billie Jean King of the United States. Donald Budge emphasized in writing that Margaret Court when playing at her very best during a tennis match did, in fact, defeat Billie Jean King when Ms. King was playing at her own very best during that same tennis match, according to Donald Budge.

---When you competed against Mrs. Margaret Court at professional tennis tournaments, did you ever find it intimidating to sense that she was being described by the news media during that time period as a "Great Mother Figure" for the entire tennis community? Did you ever sense that your winning a tennis match against Mrs. Court would feel a bit awkward for you, since you possibly hated to think of this Benevolent and Noble Mother Figure from Australia being embarrassed or saddened because of anything you yourself had achieved.

---Of all the women who have acquired global fame through their talents on the tennis court, which 10 ladies from around the world would you rank as having been the finest true ladies to have been among the top 20 female players in the world at some point during their career? For instance, would you rank Maria Bueno of Brazil highly in a ranking of that type? It seems to me that I've read that Maria Bueno was quite a fine lady, and her style on the court was reportedly very gracious and elegant. I also think of Althea Gibson as having reportedly been a very polite true lady on the tennis court. And, of course, probably just about everyone would include Margaret Court in a ranking of that type of the finest ladies to have ever played the game of tennis at that caliber. Would you also include the affable 1980s Australian female player Wendy Turnbull in a "Tennis's Top True Ladies" ranking?

---Would you support the establishment of a "Professional Tennis Players Honor Society" that rewards and honors the law-abiding pro tennis players who exhibit good court etiquette and good sportsmanship? If an organization of that type were established, would you also support a provision in the bylaws of that group that provides for expelling or disciplining a member who recently was convicted of committing a felony crime, or who recently exhibited poor etiquette during a match, or who otherwise exhibited unsportsmanlike conduct?

---Television commentators from the United States often remarked to viewing audiences that Wendy Turnbull of Australia was one of the friendliest and nicest players in the entire professional tennis community. You yourself were voted the "Friendliest" female professional player at least one year, and probably more than that, by the other professional female players competing at tennis tournaments during that period. Who do you believe was the friendlier, yourself or Wendy Turnbull of Australia?

----Some observers of yourself may have commented on the irony behind your double image. on the one hand, American television tennis comementators frequently emphasized to viewers that you had quite a strong "killer instinct" as a professional tennis player. And Ms. Billie Jean King, when she served as a television commentator at one of your matches, stated that the black eye-liner make-up you generally wore in your tennis matches was very intimidating to your opponent. On the ohter hand, as I mentioned a minute ago, you were voted Friendliest female professional tennis player by your colleagues at least one year. How can a player be as devastatingly ruthless and intimidating and feared by her opponents while still being rated highly for friendliness? It must have been a very difficult balancing act for you throughout your career in that way.

---One of your former rivals, Ms. Billie Jean King, confessed in her 1970s autobiography that she chose to terminate her own personal friendship with Rosie Casals of San Francisco, Califorrnia. Ms. King stated that she did that after Rosie Casals, her best friend at the time, told Ms. King that Rosie wanted to become the number-one ranked female tennis player in the entire world. Ms. King emphasized in her autobiography that Ms. King would not allow herself to be a personal friend of any woman who admitted to Ms. King that the former individual wanted to be ranked number one in the world in women's professional tennis. In your own career, did you ever reject any woman or female youth as a prospective "best friend" or "personal friend" for youself primarily because you sensed or learned that she wanted to become number one in the world in women's professional tennis?

---Television commentators frequently noted in the 1970s that you hated to get embarrassed during a professional tennis match. Of all the women you competed against in the 1970s, would you say that Evonne Goolagong of Australia possibly embarrassed you the most frequently, such as through her flair for wrong-footing her opponent through her shot selections, or her flair for abruptly ending a rally by hitting a beautifully-placed drop volley into her opponent's court.

--The nationwide prestige of Billie Jean King's name today must strike you as a bit surprising in some ways. When you competed against her in the 1970s and she loudly verbalized profanity during your professional tennis matches, did you ever feel anger or alienation toward Billie Jean King? If so, how did you manage to keep that impression of yours to yourself, since I don't believe that you complained about her publicly to the American news media all that much, if at all.

---Have you been amazed by the transformation of Ms. Billie Jean King's reputation and style during the multi-decade period since her days of actively competing on the professional tennis circuit in her 20s amd 30s? In the 1960s and 1970s, as you may recall, she often came across as combative, hostile, abrasive, and militant. But these days, it seems, she has emerged as one of the reigning matriarchs of the entire tennis scene in the United States. Do you credit Billie Jean King for having achieved that type of lofty stature of today, despite her prior decades in which there must have been many American mothers and fathers who warned their daughters to NOT be like Billie Jean King when they grow up.

---Tennis commentators used to note that you would grunt while hitting a tennis ball during your professional tennis matches. Were you the first-ever world-famous female tennis player who made any sound of that type in the middle of a rally at a tournament? If so, does it alarm you at all to sense that some of the players of today, Venus and Serena Williams among them, have generated noise during a rallly that is so ferocious and loud that it is distracting to the opponent and to spectators?

---Do you feel at all responsible or blameworthy in any way for the evolution that occurred from grunting, the minimal background sound that you used to generate frequently during your professional tennis matches, to the very, very loud and nasty noise that players like the Williams sisters have caused during pro tennis tournaments?

---Who do you recall as having been the first-ever female professional tennis player who generated lots of noise of her own in the middle of a point being played at a tournament? Was Ms. Tracy Austin possibly that individual, or was it some other female professional tennis player louder than Tracy in the middle of a point being played.

---Do you believe that a professional tennis player of today can be fully successful without generating any vocalized noise during a professional tennis match?

---The incident at a recent U.S. Open in which one of the Williams sisters verbalized a death threat to an official during a pro tennis match in which she was competing shocked many tennis fans. Is that the first-ever occasion you can recall in the entire history of women's professional tennis in which a female player has actually verbalized a death threat to a linesman or umpire during a pro tennis match?

---Looking back, would you have been offended if a police officer or FBI agent had arrested that Williams sister seconds after she verbalized a loud and nasty death threat to a female official at a U.S. Open pro tennis tournament. Or would you have regarded any such arrest and criminal-prosecution of that professional tennis player as somehow "compromising" to the overall reputation of professional tennis?

---Would you be willing to offer your recollections about a 1970s finals match you had against Billie Jean King at a L'eggs-sponsored pro tennis tournament at Lakeway near Austin, Texas. What made that match especially memorable was the incident in which Billie Jean King angrily disagreed with a line call from one of the officials at that match, and she refused to play any further. Ms. King did, in fact, walk off the court and thereby forfeited that match in eithe the second or third set, and I forget which.

---Would you like to see the American news media devote to indignant or angry "walk-outs" by professional tennis players during a tennis match which resulted in that player forfeiting a tennis match. Would you also like to see a compilation of statisics on which players hold the all-time records for the most total occasions when they refused to continue playing a match for reasons other than an injury that they sustained during a match.

---Have you ever heard of any case in which a professional tennis player justifiably and in a very reasonabler manner stormed off a tennis court during a tennis match and refused to lpay any further in that match?

---Do you happen to have statistics on the long-term trend on the total annual number of indignant or angry walk-outs by professional tennis players at any point during a professional tennis match?

---Have you seen long-term statatistics of that type that exclusively refer to American tennis players?

---In your own 1970s and 1980s career as a profssional tennis player, did you ever on any occasion walk off the tennis court and refuse to continue playing a tennis match in which you were competing?

---Do you believe that professional tennis players who walk out and quit during professional tennis match without citing any injury to themselves for a reason should be punished or fined more than they currently are?

---You are regarded by many observers as a leading American Ambassador to the entire Tennis World. Is that a fair evaluation of your current role in the tennis world?

---Would you like to see annual tennis-theme celebration of some type at the United Nations in New York City, New York? I am referring to the type of annual day of honoring the great sport of tennis in which the Secretary General of the UN, for instance, might possibly pose in front of cameras while holding a tennis racquet. I'm also referring to an annual celebration in which one huge tennis racquet-shaped cake could be presented inside the UN General Assembly to all of the delegates at the United Nations. It might be the type of cake offering special tributes to the nations of Italy, France, Great Britain, Australia, and the United States for each hosting one of the "majors" tournaments of professional tennis on an annual basis. Each and every one of the nations of citizenship of all of the pro tennis players who were ranked in the top 20 or top 50 in the world at any time that calendar year could also be highlighted on that racquet-shaped cake to be sliced and seved to delegates in that special annual ceremony at the United Nations.

---In view of the fact that tennis and soccer are possibly the only sports that are played in virtually every nation in the world, would you, in fact, like to see the United Nations in New York City designate one day of each year as "International Tennis Day"? Which day of the year would you personally prefer for the proposed International Tennis Day?

---When you observe an American player being "unstatesmanlike" or "unsportsmanlike" and very rude during a professional tennis match, do you wish that American society would do more to promote a gentlemanly and ladylike stayle of play by all American tennnis players, including professional tennis players from the United States.

----Is there any style of attire that any of the current professional American tennis players are pursuing these days at tournaments that you personally regard as either inappropriate or rude or disrespectful or unprofessional?

---Some observers of professional tennis have no doubt commented that you and the Swedish gentleman player Bjorn Borg, respectively, contributed more than any other players toward helping to promote the color pink as a color for your tennis attire during a professional tennis match.

Did it ever cross your mind that you and Bjorn Borg were possibly the most noteworthy exponents of tennis attire highlighting the color pink? Did you admire Bjorn's courage in wearing the color pink at professional tennis matches, when it seems likely that Bjorn was teased by many observers for having worn the color pink at tournaments.

So many Americans, at least, traditionally have claimed that men who wear the color pink are either "effeminate" or "sissies" or "wimps," or some similar interpretation. But it seemed that when Bjorn wore the color pink at professional men's tennis tournaments, his masculinity remained fully intact. I don't get the impression that any reasonable observer of Bjorn Borg stated that the pink-colored shirt or pink-colored shorts he wore somehow comprised an anti-masculine declaration by Bjorn Borg of Sweden. And it was often pointed out, in any event, that he developed his style of hitting the tennis ball from his prior days as a hockey player in Sweden. And hockey tends to be regarded as one of the most virile and masculine of all the sports for men.

---Would you like to see some organization governing or guiding conduct by professional tennis players set a limit on the number and size of content of tattoos on their body that they can reveal to tennis audiences during professional tennis matches?

---Whenever you served against Ms. Tracy Austin in a professional tennis match in the 1970s and 1980s, did it ever bother you or distract you to note that she was, in fact, repeatedly and almost frenetically and nervously genuflecting from her side of the tennis court, giving the impression that she was asking God to help her win that point? Since you yourself are a devout Roman Catholic, did you ever resent Tracy for insinuating that she had a more special relationship with God than you yourself no doubt feel that you have?

---When you served against Ms. Tracy Austin, did it ever bother you to sense that she was repeatedly and very emphatically thrusting her tennis racquet toward you in a very aggressive manner while waiting for your serve? Did her body language while awaiting your serve seem to indicate to you that she regarded her tennis racquet as a very powerful and sword or weapon, and she possibly sought to "stab" her opponent through her "killer shot" in response to your serve?

---Of the two, Ms. Tracy Austin and Ms. Monica Seles, which player had the more aggressive style when you competed against her during a professional tennis match? Which of the two do you believe was the tougher opponent for you?

---Would you rank Tracy Austin's 6-0, 6-0 victory over yourself in the finals of a Canadian Open tennis tournament as the most humiliating defeat you ever endured in your entire career as a professional tennis player? What do you think happened during that finals match that might account for your own inability to win any game in that match?

---When you lost a women's singles professional tennis match, you habitually would pat your opponent on the head when the two of you met at the net upon conclusion of that match. Did you find it difficult to pat Tracy Austin on the head when you lost to her 0-6, 0-6 in that particular Canadian Open women's singles finals match?

---Was your loss to Tracy Austin in Canada by a score of 0-6, 0-6, the most humiliating day of your entire career as a professional tennis player?

---As you may recall, tennis commentator Bud Collins of "The Boston Globe" staff once wrote in the 1970s that your own famous first words upon entering Paris, France, in order to compete at the French Open professional tennis tournament in the 1970s were, "Where's the McDonald's (chain restaurant)?" Was that an accurate or fair quote of yourself from Bud Collins about your own reported first words upon entering Paris for the first time as a competitor at a professional tennis tournament there?

----When a player is competing at a professional tennis tournament, do you recommend that that tennis player abstain from trying new foods anytime that weeek or two? I raise this question after recalling today a singles finals match of yours in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 1970s in which you lost to Ms. Virginia Wade of Great Britain. According to a male television commentator during that televised tennis match, you had eaten escargot a matter of hours before you faced Ms. Wade as your opponent in that finals match. The American television commentator who helped to broadcast that finals match added that possibly your choice of breakfast dish, escargot, may have hindered your own performance during your tennis match against Ms. Wade that day. I'm assuming, incidentally, that this was a factually-correct report from the tennis commentator, who appeared to be suggesting that possibly escargot was the wrong breakfast dish for you if you wanted to win a finals-round tennis match later that day.

---Was that Philadelphia tournament the only professional tennis tournament you competed in in which you chose escargot as the dish you ate shortly before competing professionally on a tennis court?

---We tend to think of snails as being rather sluggish or very, very slow, if you will. And we have all heard the expression "you are what you eat." Since you ate snails, to put it bluntly, shortly before facing the British tennis player Virginia Wade in that particular 1970s singles finals match at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, do you think that possibly you felt a bit "snail-like" or "sluggish" in that match? Or did you, in fact, find yourself blaming the snails you ate earlier that day for your loss to Virginia Wade in that finals-round singles match?

---Australian tennis champion Margaret Court advised in her autobiography that tennis players should abstain from eating dessert with their meals, if they want to be in the best of physical condition. Do you agree with Margaret Court's advice on that?

---During your professional career on the pro tennis circuit, did you ever sense or believe that television tennis commentator Bud Collins had possibly slandered or libeled any professional tennis player? I am especially thinking of the habitual manner in which Bud Collins of "The Boston Globe" staff would announce during educational-television coverage of a tennis match in the 1970s that professional tennis player Betty Stove of The Netherlands was "Big Bad Betty." Did you yourself regard Betty Stove as having been mean or nasty or unkind toward her opponents?

---Did you ever feel a bit awkward when you heard or learned that tennis commentator Bud Collins of "The Boston Globe" in the 1970s habitually referred to professional tennis champion Ivan Lendl as "Ivan the Terrible"? Did it strike you as unfair toward Ivan Lendl to imply that Mr. Lendl was not only very mean but also Russian in ancestry? I raise this question partly because the real-life Ivan the Terrible was reportedly an infamous czar from Russian history.

---I'm also reminded that the very same Bud Collins in the 1970s or 1980s repeatedly and habitually described professional tennis player Ms. Pam Shriver as a "spoiled rich kid from Silver Spring, Maryland" during television play-by-play commentary that Bud Collins provided in the 1970s or 1980s for television coverage of professional women's singles-tennis matches in which Pam Shriver was one of the featured competitors. As a personal friend of Pam Shriver, do you yourself feel that Bud Collins unfairly damaged her professional reputation? I raise this question because to this day, whenever I myself hear about or observe Pam Shriver in her new role as a pro tennis television commentator, the term "spoiled rich kid" immediately comes to mind for me for me, thanks to Bud Collins of "The Boston Globe" staff.

----Did you approve of the cited "logic" behind Bud Collins's insistence on referring to professional tennis players through metaphorical and hyperbolic and dramatic language? I raise this question because from what I understand, Bud Collins believed that if he built up each of the professional tennis players to be "larger-than-life" figures with a mythological stature to them, this would help to promote the sport of tennis.

----Did you yourself cry when you first saw the headline in the London tabloid in the 1970s that boldly labeled you as "Prissy Miss Chrissie" during one of the first Wimbledon tournaments in which you competed professionally.

----Did it hurt your feelings at all when you read or heard about a London tabloid in the 1970s that labeled you for the first time as "the Ice Maiden" at Wimbledon?

---When you lost against Evonne Goolagong of Australia at Wimbledon in possibly your first-ever professional singles match in which you competed against her, did it cross your mind that possibly the glamorous and beautifully-dressed Evonne Goolagong would emerge as a "Princess of Wimbledon" for many years into the future? I raise this question because, as you know, the British newspapers had dubbed your match against Evonne Goolagong during that tournament as a competition to identify who would emerge as the "Princess of Wimbledon".

---Of all the female professional tennis players whom you competed against at tournaments, wasn't Evonne Goolagong of Australia the one female player who consistently wore the most beautiful tennis outfits, from what you can recall? Was there any other female player you competed against in the 1970s and 1980s who was dressed almost as beautifully as Evonne was for your singles tennis match competitions?

---In the 1970s and 1980s, did you ever hear anyone make any cruel or slanderous comments about Evonne Goolagong's racial ancestry at any of the pro tennis tournaments in which you competed? I'm referring, of course, toe the often-noted fact that Evonne was half-white and half-aboriginal, and I believe the American television commentators would frequently point this out during televised matches featuring Evonne Goolagong as a competitor.

---After you were dubbed so cruelly by English newspapers as "Prissy Miss Chrissie" and "The Ice Maiden," is it surprising in some ways that you later chose to marry a man from the very nation that had possibly hurt your feelings more than any other country in the entire world. Looking back, do you believe that possibly the English were too cruel toward you, and that it was therefore a mistake for you to have married an Englishman, as you did when you tied the knot with John Lloyd.

---Do you still own a home in England? Inside that home, do you keep on permanent display for your own amusement or entertainment or enjoyment some of the 1970s or 1980s tabloid headlines about yourself from London newspapers that, even today, possibly make you want to cry, when you reflect on how many millions of Britons read those awful words about you back in the 1970s.

---Of all the members of the Royal Family in The United Kingdom, which lady and which gentleman you do regard as being the finest amateur tennis players? Have any of those two individuals contributed a lot toward promoting tennis in Great Britain, in your opinion.

---You may recall the 1979 article by Jim Martz of "The Miami Herald" sports department in which he interviewed Ms. Tracy Austin, an emerging professional-tennis star, on the subject of whether annual continuation of the Wightman Cup competition tradition between feamle American and female British tennis players was, in fact, justifiable.
Miss Tracy Austin, you may recall, responded to that question by saying to the "Miami Herald" reporter, "That's a toughie" (exact quote), with Jim Martz having apparently pointed out to Ms. Austin in that context that the American team had won nearly all of the Wightman Cup competitions in recent decades. Do you agree with Jim Martz's apparent position on behalf of "The Miami Herald" daily newspaper in 1979 that the Wightman Cup was possibly not worthy of continuation, since the outcome of those competitions was heavily lopsided in favor of the female American tennis team.

---Do you thnk the Wightman Cup competition between American women and British women could be improved if any female player from any British Commonwealth nation or territory, including Australia and Canada and Great Britain and Jamaica, could potentially qualify to serve on the British team in that competition. Wouldn't that make for much stronger competition in the annual Wightman Cup competition, in your opinion. Or would that make it unfair toward the American team, if those ladies had to compete against the finest female players from all of the British Commonwealth nations?

---Do you sometimes wish that the British girls who show potential talent or talent in the sport of tennis would have the opportunity to obtain first-rate instruction at an American tennis program featuring weather that's conducive to playing tennis outdoors. Have you attempted to help any of the female British youths with potential for tennis to visit Florida and participate in an intensive tennis-instruction program in the Sunshine State? I pose this question partly because your second home in England that has been well-publicized suggests to many observers that possibly you have a bit of a dual allegiance---first to your native country, and possibly second to Great Britain.

---Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you actually have a strong Irish heritage from your family tree? Has that reported Irish ancestry of yours prompted you to want to help improve the tennis-education programs in Ireland? Or is your focus on American youths through tennis-education programs that you offer in the United States?

---Do you ever joke to friends of yours that you yourself are "not like the Irish, since my own temperament is very even-keeled. I never explode with anger, the way the Irish so often tend to." Since you take pride in having a very consistent and polite style, do you sometimes feel a bit embarrassed to have anyone comment on your Irish heritage?

---Many observers of Irish-Americans tend to think of them as being more superstitious than are the majority of Americans. Maybe it's the image of the Irish leprauchan that's buried in our psyche whenever we Americans learn about anyone having Irish ancestry. As an Irish-American yourself, do you regard yourself as being more superstitious today or less superstitious today than are the majority of professional tennis players who competed against you at tournaments in the 1970s and 1980s?

---Do you ever think that possibly you married an Englishman, John Lloyd, partly because you wanted to downplay your own Irish ancestry? I pose this question because as you know, traditionally it has been very rare for a person of Irish ancestry to marry an English citizen.

---Dring the first several months your marriage to John Lloyd in the 1970s, you were repeatedly and mysteriously losing professional tennis matches in the early rounds of tournaments you entered. Also during that time period, you were frequently losing matches against players who had never defeated you before. Was that an early warning sign for you that your marriage to John Lloyd was not successful for you?

---When you watched the often-nasty on-court antics by Irish-American tennis player John McEnroe in the 1970s and 1980s, did you ever note to yourself that "I'm so glad that no one ever thinks of me (Chris Evert) as having an Irish temperament myself. It's John McEnroe, not myself, whom everyone identifies as being of Irish heritage."

---When you combined with Olga Morozova of the Soviet Union as her doubles partner in professional tennis matches of the 1970s and possibly the 1980s, did you do that partly because you wanted to help promote friendship between Americans and Russians? Also, did President Ford or President Carter or President Reagan ask you to agree to serve as Olga Morozova's doubles partner, in order to promote peaceful relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. I realize as I pose these questions, of course, that Olga Morozova was a very talented athlete, and was in fact a gymnastics instructor in Moscow, according to what the American television commentators frequently pointed out about herself.

---Do you find it surprising that the Soviet Union of today is, in fact, the one nation in the entire world where the largest number of professional women's tennis players can be found who are each ranked among the top 20 players in the entire world. I'm sure you would agree that this 21st Century dominance over women's professional tennis by the Soviet Union, or what some people refer to as being the "former Soviet Union," is unprecedented in the entire history of women's tennis. Or did this Soviet dominance over women's tennis begin in the 1990s?

---Most people don't regard the Russian climate as being well-suited to playing tennis, not to mention honing the talents of prospective professional tennis players. Do you believe that the republic of Georgia in what some call the "former Soviet Union" is serving as the leading region for the training of promising female athletes who wish to compete professionally in tennis. Is Georgia, in other words, serving as the unofficial counterpart to Florida as a haven for emerging talent among the girls and young ladies of what some are calling the former Soviet Union.

---Which professional tennis tournament held in the Soviet Union is currently the greatest and most enjoyable tournament for an American professional tennis player to compete in? When you competed in tennis tournaments in the Soviet Union, did you ever sense that the Russian tennis fans admired you partly because you had agreed to serve as Olga Morozova's doubles partner at tournaments?

---Have you become lifelong personal friends with Olga Morozova of the Russian capital of Moscow? When the two of you get together, do you generally visit her, or does she fly a plane to the United States in order to spend several days with you?

---We all know that the French Open and the Italian Open and the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, the majors, are the among the most prestigious of all the annual tennis tournaments. Of those four majors tournaments, which do you believe offers the most delicious dining opportunities or catering services for professional tennis players competing at that tournament?

---We have all heard wonderful accounts from television commentators about the delicious strawberries and cream that spectators enjoy eating as they sit in the stands at Wimbledon and watch the professional tennis players compete in matches. Yet the Italian Open, the Australian Open, and the U.S. Open do not have any such global reputation for any particular favorite snack of spectators at those majors tennis tournaments. Why do you think it is that Wimbledon has that very romantic culinary glamor to it, while the other majors tournaments have no such global reputation for delicious snacks being eaten by the fans as they sit in the stands.

---Would you like to see the bakers of America do more in the way of preparing tennis-ball shaped pastries or tennis racquet-shaped pastries? I pose this question because there must be millions of tennis fans in the United States who would enjoy being served a tennis-racquet-shaped birthday cake on their birthday.

---Have you yourself ever attended a birthday party at which the honored guest was treated to a massive or large tennis-ball-shaped or tennis-racquet-shaped birthday cake or birthday pie or other birthday pastry?

---Speaking of food, have you found that professional tennis players from all over the world habitually share their favorite culinary recipes with one another? If so, do you sense that tennnis fans would appreciate the opportunity to purchase an International Cookbook featuring the favorite recipes of former and current professional tennis players from a variety of countries?

---When you competed at the Italian Open, did you habitually pay a courtesy visit to the Vatican each occasion when you played in that majors tournament? I raise this question partly because you have long been among the most famous Roman Catholic women in the entire world, and it's likely tha the Pope would have requested that you meet with him during or after the Italian Open tournament.

---Do you know of any other Roman Catholic American woman who is currently more famous than yourself?

---Whenever you competed professionally at the Italian Open in Rome, did you always sense as a Roman Catholic athlete that you were very mindful of representatives of the Pope, and possibly even the Pope himself, being among the fans in attendance who were watching you compete at that majors tournament? Did you ever sense that the Pope, or a representative for the Pope, sitting in the stands at the Italian Open was actually rooting for an opponent of yours? If so, how did you avoid feeling emotionally hurt and distracted by any such impression as you yourself strove to win that tennis match despite the Pope's apparent support for your opponent that day?

---As a Roman Catholic woman yourself, did you feel a particular need to win the Italian Open as often as you could, in order to impress the Pope and his Cardinals and nuns at the Vatican?

---Was Italy the one country in the entire world where the news media from that country that interviewed you in the 1970s and 1980s would devote the greatest emphasis to identifying yourself as being a member of the Roman Catholic Church? Did the news media in Spain and in Latin American nations also habitually emphasize in their news coverage about you that you are a member of the Roman Catholic Church?

---Of the various saints of the Roman Catholic Church, which saint, if any, inspired you the most during your professional tennis matches of the 1970s and 1980s? Or did you attempt to focus on the patron saint of the nation in which you were playing during that particular tournament? I'm assuming, that is, that the patron saint of Italy would be a very different saint from the patron saint of Honduras, which I happen to know from my chilhood is a lady named Suyapa.

---Did you ever find yourself praying during any of your matches at professional tennis matches? If so, did you attempt to conceal your courtside prayer, so that your fans would not sense that you were attempting to communicate with God and ask God to help you achieve victory in that tennis match?

---On those occasions when you as a Roman Catholic woman lost a tennis match to an atheist, and it is possible that Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia may have been an atheist though I myself have never read about her own views on religion, did you ever feel anger toward God for having possibly favored an atheist opponent of yours in that match?

---Do you find it surprising that none of the colleges or universities in the United States that are owned by the Roman Catholic Church are famous for having first-rate varsity-tennis programs and nationally-ranked varsity tennis players? Or am I overlooking a Catholic school, such as Notre Dame University or Boston College, that possibly does better in varisty tennis competition than I was myself aware of.

---As a lifelong Roman Catholic yourself, have you ever once heard or learned about any Pope of the Roman Catholic Church who played tennis either during his tenure as Pope or in his younger days? Would you like to see the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church do more than at present to help prmote tennis as a lifelong sport for anyone?

---As a Roman Catholic woman, do you ever worry that when you yourself in your eventual expected afterlife enter Heaven in accordance with your own religious beliefs, you will be shocked to discover what a very low percent age of your former colleagues from the international tennis community actually made it into Heaven?

---Did you ever think to yourself during a singles or doubles or mixed-doubles professional tennis match that one or both of your opponents that day would be suffering an unfavorable afterlife decades later, and would probably end up in Hell, from what you sensed during that particular match. Which female professional player or players during a pro-tennis match of yours prompted you to sense a Hell-bound journey for them in their afterlife?

---We all know that the Roman Catholic Church emphasizes the importance of doing "good deeds" as a basis for going to Heaven after a person has died. When you competed in professional tennis tournaments, did you generally or ever look upon that competition at tournaments as "good deeds" by yourself that could help to ensure a favorable eventual afterlife for you?

---Did you sense during your professional tennis career in the 1970s and 1980s that your admirable style of refraining from ever verbalizing any foul language or any obscene speech during your matches might possibly help to assure you of a favorable eventual afterlife, particularly when you knew that one of your female opponents during that period, and inevitably the name "Billie Jean King" comes to mind, was somewhat infamous for verbalizing swear words between points in her matches.

---In your entire career as a professional tennis player, do you recall ANY occasion in which you ever muttered any profane speech or swear word or obscene speech to yourself at any point during a professional tennis match in which you were competing? If so, did you choose to then promptly confess any such cited "sin" on your part to a priest at some point during or shortly after that tennis tournament?

---From your entire career as a professional tennis player, did you ever do anything as a player, such as during a tournament, that you later sensed might have comprised a "mortal sin," as I believe that the Roman Catholic Church classifies major sins. I'm referring to the types of sins that could potentially put a person in Hell in their eventual afterlife, if I'm correctly paraphrasing the Roman Catholic Church's official position on that particlar cited category of sin.

---During your career as a professional tennis player in the 1970s and 1980s, did you ever ask a priest of the Roman Catohlic Church to help "save the soul" of any particular pro tennis player whom you sensed to be at risk of that individual going to Hell?

---Do you believe that religion is not emphasized enough by the majority of professional tennis players of today. Do you sense that the percentage of pro tennis players who are religious persons has declined, increased, or remained about the same in the period since you began your professional-tennis career in the early 1970s?

---I'm sure you are familiar with that famous story about King Gustav of Sweden, who himself reportedly played tennis matches well into his 80s. In the best of all possible worlds, would you like to see a Pope of the Roman Catholic Church playing tennis well into his 80s, or possibly into his 90s?

---What is the oldest age at which any person you've ever heard about or read about was actually playing either singles or doubles tennis matches? Was that oldest-ever tennis player in his or her 90s or 80s?

---We've all heard horror stories about an amateur player who suffered a heart attack during a tennis match. Of the cases of that type that you have heard about, was the amateur player always over age 60?

---Have you ever heard of any case of a professional tennis player who sustained a heart attack during a professional tennis tournament? Who was that player, and do you recall what you read about the circumstances on that?

---If a tennis player suffers from major heart disease, do you recommend that he take up golf instead, based on th theory that he would be less likely to suffer a heart attack on a golf course than he would on a tennis court.

---Many people associate your home state, Florida, with shuffleboard. Do you regard shuffleboard as a true and healthy sport for senior citizens that actually benefits their medical health and can boost their lifespan?

---Which tennis court surface is the best for protecting the medical health and safety of the players? Would that surface be clay or hard court or grass? I raise this question partly because it seems to me that the clay court must be easier on the players' feet than a hard court would be.

----Do medical physicians recommend playing on clay tennis courts as opposed to hard courts or grass courts? If so, do you think it was a mistake for the U.S. Open to have switched from a clay court surface, at Forest Hills, to a hard-court surface at Flushing Meadows, New York?

---One similiarity you seem to have with the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is that you and the Pope have each traveled more extensively than 99 percent of all Americans or Europeans. The same could be said of the Pope, and the same could be said of the Head of the Protestant Anglican religious denomination, Queen Elizabeth II. Does it thrill you to sense that you have traveled more extensively than nearly all the women of the United States, with the likely exception of airline flight attendants and a handful of female tennis players, and that you have traveled more extensively trough your career than 98 percent or more of all American men?

---We have all heard about professional tennis matches being played on virtually every continent of the globe. But has there ever been a professional tennis match played on Antarctica? If so, I don't remember reading a news account about that tennis match. Would you like to see the international tennis community "conquer" Antarctica, if you will, by sponsoring a first-ever professional tennis match on a tennis court on Antarctica? I'm assuming that would be an indoor tennis match, or do you have reason to believe that an outdoor tennis match on Antarctica could be humanly possible?

---Do you remember the coldest weather you yourself ever faced at a professional tennis match in which you competed outdoors? What did you do to stay warm during that tennis match? Did you wear earmuffs, for instance? Did you wear a warm-up jacket or a ski cap throughout that match?

---Has the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican City ever expressed any concerns to you about your having been divorced from three different respective men whom you had been married to? I raise this question because the Roman Catholic Church traditionally objects to marital divorces.

---Did Catholic Church officials' reactions to your three different marital divorces ever prompt you to question whether the Roman Catholic Church is the right religion for yourself?

---Of the various current or former colleagues of yours in the international tennis community, have any players or former players or any coaches ever indicated to you that your status as a three-time divorcee possibly undermined your reputation and your moral credibility in their own eyes?

---As a Roman Catholic woman, do you sometimes worry that a woman who gets divorced from the man she had gotten married to at a church ceremony is herself at increased risk of possibly going to Hell upon her own death?

---Do you believe that the Roman Catholic Church should show more tolerance than it traditionally has toward a woman's asserted right to obtain a marital divorce from her spouse? Do you know of any Roman Catholic women of today who, though very are very unhappy in their marriage, have chosen not to seek a divorce from their spouse because they sense that they would face disapproval from the Roman Catholic Church and others if they did?

---Do you believe or suspect that the marital divorce rate by American professional tennis players is higher than for most other Americans? For instance, many people vividly recall that Billie Jean King obtained a marital divorce from a Mr. King (and it's odd how so many Americans have forgotten Mr. King's first name), as well as the "palimony" lawsuit against Ms. King in a court of law by a former female romantic partner of Ms. King. In fact, do you know of ANY current truly lasting and successful mutual-consent marriage in which one of the spouses is a former or current professional American tennis player?

---Of the professional tennis players whom you admired the most, which player or players do you believe had or currently have the most mutually-beneficial and healthiest mutual-consent marriages? Did you feel that Rod and Mary Laver, for instance, were a very fine married couple? Or did you sense that possibly Australian tennis player Margaret Smith's marriage to a man by the last name of "Court", and whose own first name was not well-publicized in the United States, at least, was your idea of a perfect marriage involving a tennis player as one of the partners.

---Did any priest of the Roman Catholic Church ever specifically ask you to confess to that priest any sinful conduct you might have committed in the context of your career as a professional tennis player? For instance, did you ever once confess to a priest during confessional that you sometimes wondered how the tennis-player rankings would change if one of your leading rivals were to suddenly vanish from the tennis circuit after a mysterious plane crash in which an airplane carrying that rival of yours suddenly dove into the Pacific Ocean?

---You once referred to Miss Tracy Austin of Rolling Hills, California, as your "nemesis," as you put it to a newspaper reporter in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Today, many observers of yours are no doubt imprssed to note that in your career as publisher of "Tennis" magazine, you have presided over the hiring of Ms. Tracy Austin as one of your monthly magazine's instruction editors. Are you, in fact, personal friends with Tracy these days? Also, is it at all difficult to have a professional relationship these days with one of the handful of women or female youths who as competitors of yours in tennis matches humbled you, and possibly even humiliated you, the most frequently in the 1970s and early 1980s?

----If you weren't living in the United States, which coumtry of the world do you personally regard as being the most pleasant to live in? Would that nation be England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Czechoslovakia, or some other country?

---Of all the countries you have visited on the professional tennis tour, which country do you regard as being the most underestimated or underrated nation in the entire world, in your opinion?