America has an interesting global role, don't we? It certainly seems to be changing. Our government right now has a softer hand than we've had in the past, but I still think that we're the global behemoth.
America is the world's policemen, whether you and I like that or not. That's a fact. People globally feel that.
Without a doubt, there's huge satisfaction when a relatively smaller nation can take on a bigger nation and defeat them. There's a lot of pride in that.
There used to be a lot more politics in the Olympics, when the Soviet Bloc committed a lot of resources for propaganda purposes.
There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that most champions are born into certain environments and encouraged early. Then, later on, they might get some assistance from their federations.
There are certainly great cities in America that don't have ATP and WTA events. Our fans are very provincial. They want American champions.
There are only four U.S. tournaments that the very best players in the world play every year - Palm Springs, Miami, Cincinnati, and the U.S. Open. So how would golf or NFL or NHL fare if there were only four times a year that their very best were visible? Tennis went international, and for us to expect it to be popular media-wise is very naïve. And that translates into children and families being interested.
You can kick a ball into the net, throw a basketball into the net. Tennis is complicated. It'll make a lot of great athletes run the other way because they can't be successful initially.
What I like about the USTA is that it's developing systems to help the coaches coach better.
There's no evidence that says that the money a federation has translates into success. I hope that that will change.
It's unfair to expect the USTA, just because they make this pot of money, to just snap their fingers and make champions. It's not simple, and anyone who thinks it is hasn't really looked underneath the hood to see how the engine works.
Tennis doesn't encourage any kind of intellectual development.
Unbelievable, yet, what else could it be?
I think all of us are shaped by the choices we make.
I think all of us who kind of live within the sport recognize that Davis Cup certainly could be a little more visible if perhaps there were some adjustments made to it, and it was made a little bit more easy to understand for the fans, if there's a little bit more of a start and finish line.
Flying has opened up new horizons for tennis.
I think there's no reason the Davis Cup couldn't be as powerful and popular and profitable as any of the four majors are today, given some changes.
The reason I didn't take the baseball route is because they don't have rankings for baseball players.
It's hard for anyone in the 24-hour news cycles that we all live in now to follow something that the first round is played in March and the final finishes in December. I understand the challenges there.
I knew I was the second-best tennis player in the state of Florida and No. 8 in the United States of America when I was 12 years old and I couldn't tell you what I was in baseball, but I liked my chances in tennis of getting a scholarship to college.
