133. BUCKLE UP! – Reality Tennis

One thing I always find quite scary and certainly disconcerting, when traveling on the women’s pro tennis tour, is the reliance and trust, that the players and their support teams, have to put into local transport, in particular taxis/cars. My anxiety levels are never good on travel days but they definitely get worse when part of the journey involves getting into a car of questionable safety, with an unknown driver, who doesn’t speak English, and then having to travel for a number of hours in an ‘alien’ country, where literally anything could happen along the way.

A few incidents come to mind that have happened whilst travelling with my player over the years.

Firstly, random road blocks – so far experienced in Mexico, Morocco and Brazil. In Mexico, we were stopped and asked to pay to use a particular road. The road was blocked by a chain rope, attached to concrete posts, and with a particularly ferocious looking dog positioned nearby. In this instance, if you paid then everything was ok (thankfully). The same happened in Morocco when we were en-route from Marrakech to Casablanca. Not a journey I would want to repeat!

In Brazil, in a hire car (never again!), we were pulled over by the (armed) ‘Police’. They claimed we had committed a driving offence (we had not) and so needed to show our Passports etc. At this point, I (randomly) mentioned that we were in a hurry to get to the Banana Bowl tournament (a top level Junior event), where my daughter was playing. This changed everything. The ‘Police’ suddenly became very friendly and insisted on leading us directly to the venue, to make sure we got there safely! We, in effect, got our own armed escort to the tournament but it was an unsettling experience to say the least.

Secondly, sleepy drivers. Very often, tournaments are staged miles away from the nearest airport and the only way to get there is by taxi. The issue with this is you have no idea how long the driver of the car has been awake or working. Only recently, we landed in Detroit, then had to get an Uber to Midland, MI as there was no alternative form of transport. Half way through the 2 hour journey, I noticed in the rear view mirror that the driver’s eyes were slowly closing. We had to distract him many times during that journey to keep him awake. Far from ideal!

This leads me on to say, if your player is travelling alone in a car, please urge them not to fall asleep, as not only is this dangerous as they could be taken anywhere (kidnapping is a genuine possibility in some parts of the world) but also, they might end up in an accident and know nothing about it. A couple of years ago, one player was being transported to the airport by a WTA driver. She fell asleep and woke to find herself being treated by Paramedics on the roadside, completely oblivious to what had happened a few minutes previous. Fortunately she was ok.

The condition of the taxis/cars that players on tour have to use is sometimes extremely poor. On the WTA Tour, more often than not, players are picked up in very nice, usually new, vehicles – provided by a local dealer as a form of sponsorship. On the ITF Tour however, transport is usually the responsibility of the player. Sometimes the roadworthiness of the vehicles we have to travel in is very questionable. It is not uncommon for cars in some countries, to have no seat belts, so you need to have your wits about you and watch the road carefully to be ready to brace if an accident is looking likely. Similarly, I recall trying to place our bags in the boot/trunk of a taxi in Colombia a few years back, only to be restricted by full gas canisters that were taking up most of the space. Somewhat of a fire hazard I think!

Another car related issue that fills me with fear is when I hear of players who are travelling alone, and who get into cars with random drivers without having given tracking instructions to anyone. One player I know booked an Uber in Colombia for a 4am pick up to the airport (a 4 hour drive), but she failed to tell anyone where she was going etc and did not have a tracking facility enabled. The ‘mum’ in me kicked in and I insisted she message me to confirm when she had arrived safely at Bogota Airport. I was more worried than she was!

However, even with a tracking facility, there is no guarantee that your player will arrive safely but it does at least provide a degree of comfort, assuming there is a signal of course! A few years back my player was travelling to an ITF tournament in the USA. She flew into Dallas and then picked up an Uber to take her to Waco. I was tracking her movement at home in the UK but all of a sudden she ‘disappeared’ from my screen. Needless to say I was out of my mind with worry. But fortunately she did then reappear at her destination. Her driver (whom she had described to me as ‘someone on drugs’) had driven through an area with no satellite signal so the connection had been lost.

Tennis players can be very trusting, and somewhat naive when they are first starting out on the Tour. So if you are a parent or a support team member, please warn your player(s) to exercise caution when travelling, especially if they are alone, and to stay alert at all times!

#realitytennis