Spent a whole day today covering tennis (and not just writing about it; see yesterday’s entry), and this is what I took from it:

I am jealous of tennis writers.

It’s very easy to explain, too.

Tennis has the most quotable athletes in sports.

I’d covered the sport often enough to be aware of this, but if a writer hasn’t been around the tennis guys for a few years, and then you go back out and …

This is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Every player comes in after every match, and they stay pretty much until everybody is done asking questions.

Wait. What?

Yes. Every player comes in after every match, win or lose, and they sit there and patiently answer questions. (Where they acquired this strange habit is not clear, but someone ought to get a pay raise out of the deal.)

Tennis players also answer not in sentences … but in paragraphs. Throw anything at them (Could you go over your match? … How ya feeling?) and 200 words later they take a breath.

Talking about the major players, here, too.

Roger Federer just won’t shut up — but in a good way. Well, a very good way, really, except that he gives you so much stuff that you end up spending time culling a mass of notes for the two or three quotes you can use. Or, worse, first transcribing that mass of quotes, losing a half hour of your day, and then using the two or three quotes.

Novak Djokovic, pretty much the same thing as Federer. Throw out a question, get ready for verbiage.

Rafael Nadal, too, except that his torrent of words come as they are translated inside Rafa’s head, from the Spanish, which is charming mostly, but sometimes you can’t actually quote him because what he means isn’t actually quite there in English.

I’ve heard Andy Murray is not a good interview, but he’s not in Abu Dhabi for the Mubadala Tennis World Championship. David Ferrer, however, is, and he’s another Spanish guy, like Nadal, who struggles a bit with English but sure as heck is going to try hard.

Anyway, that’s four of the top five players in the world who will answer just about any question, at length, and are available every single day they play.

Yes. Exactly. Ponder that, baseball beat writers.

Everybody who has spent time covering ball or football or basketball or global soccer … knows that finding a player who will speak at any length, intelligently, is a very rare creature. And that guy is rarely a star. He is far more likely to be a backup infielder or a middle reliever.

Golfers are known as talkers, but if the guy is not a leader, he’s not taken to the interview room, and then you’ve got to chase him down as he comes off the 18th green, and that often doesn’t turn out, barring a significant time investment.

Hockey players are good, but it’s hockey …

Tennis! That’s the sport to cover. Well, in terms of access. Media-friendly athletes, almost impossible to anger, long thoughtful answers …

Tennis writers ought to be paid less than everyone else because their job is too easy. Aside from having to watch tennis all the time. There’s that.