Contemplating Paris: A Roundtable with the Former Queen of Clay

Seven-time French Open champion Chris Evert sat down with a small group of reporters last week in New York City to promote National Tennis Month with the USTA. She also fielded questions on this year’s French Open, her experiences in Paris, and her greatest rival, Martina Navratilova. Here are some excerpts from the roundtable discussion.

On the upcoming French Open:

I know that Nadal has had a rough year with injuries, but he’s coming back and is still the favorite. I love Roger, and I never want to see him lose a match, but I just don’t see him winning the French Open. If it’s a healthy Nadal, I pick him.

On the women’s side, Henin, Clijsters and Serena—I think it’s going to be a three-way battle there. [Since she spoke, Clijsters withdrew from the tournament.] I know clay isn’t Serena’s favorite surface, but she’s been talking all year about the French being so elusive, and wanting to get her hands on the title. Clay diffuses her power and challenges her patience, but she’s so aggressive all the time. She’s going to have to change not only her style of play, but mentally she needs to change if she wants to win the tournament.

On American tennis:

Nothing’s happened to American tennis; the whole world has caught up to us. When I played, we only had Australian opponents, maybe a few Brits and Swedes. We didn’t have players from China, from Croatia—we didn’t see champions from these countries.

On promising American juniors:

I think we’ve accepted the fact that in the 17- and 18-year-old category, right now, nothing’s happening. After Melanie Oudin, there’s a bit of a gap. But there’s a lot of good young players around 15-, 16-years-old, Madison Keys, in particular. And the USTA is really working with the girls below them, the 12 to 15s. Then I see the 10- to 12-year-old camps, and these girls can beat me.

On Melanie Oudin:

Very impressive run at last year’s U.S. Open. I think I would have been more impressed if she had done well afterwards. It’s one thing to have a great tournament, but I was curious to see if she would continue that run, and it didn’t happen. But lately, she’s come back and won some matches. I think it was really an adjustment period for her after the U.S. Open; probably a bit of a shock. I almost felt bad that she got so much publicity. Yes, it was a great story, but as a tennis pro watching her matches, I thought, Don’t give her too much press, because it’s going be hard to live up to that, and it was. But I think she’s settled down now and she’s back to her roots.

On playing on clay:

Down at [the Evert Tennis Academy], all the clay courts are being used. It used to be only the hard courts, but now I see coaches bringing the young kids over on clay, and I love it. When you learn at a young age, you don’t think about it later on. Your intuition takes over.

I grew up on clay. I learned how to move on it, how to slide, and the strategy at a young age. I had a great drop shot—it’s one of the most underrated shots in the game. Learned it from my mom. Every Tuesday and Thursday growing up, I was on clay with her. She delighted in beating me; she drop-shotted me, humiliated me. Then, when I was 12, I started beating her.

On Martina Navratilova’s breast cancer announcement:

I got a message from her two days before she made the announcement. I asked her how she was feeling, and she said, “It’s my fault. I should’ve gone and gotten a checkup every year, like I was supposed to, and I didn’t do that.” But nothing fazes Martina. She was very optimistic and very strong about it. She said, “I have to go through some radiation during the French Open.” And I’m like, “During the French Open? You’re still working?” That’s admirable. She was very matter-of-fact about it.

On her 1985 and 1986 French Open finals wins against Navratilova:

Heading into the 1985 French Open, I had lost 15 of the last 16 matches against Martina. At that point, nobody gave me a chance; they counted me out, thought I’d never win another Grand Slam. It was an emotional win, but 1986 was even more surprising, when I did it again.

Ed McGrogan is an assistant editor for TENNIS.com.