By Bill Simons
In his book Never Come Morning, Nelson Algren captures the spirit of Chicago, writing, “The great trains howling from track to track all night. The taut and telegraphic murmur of ten thousand city wires, drawn most cruelly against a city sky. The rush of city waters, beneath the city streets. The passionate passing of the night’s last El.”
President Obama was rather more succinct, saying, “Let me tell you something, I’m from Chicago. I don’t break.”
Chicago’s a tough town—mean streets, cold winters, great culture, not so great Cubs. When you think about trendy American tennis regions, Florida or California come to mind, not the Windy City. But as Donald Young and the young sensation Taylor Townsend advance at the French Open, and Chicago-born Katrina Adams is about to take over as President of the USTA, you might want to think again. Here’s a little Chicago reader:
• Mike Agassi and Richard Williams—the two fathers who plotted more than any others to have their kids become tennis champions—have curious, though brief, Chicago connections.
Andre Agassi‘s dad Michael was a lost kid in Tehran, Iran—a failed Olympic boxer who lived in wretched conditions, one of 13 family members cramped close in an apartment and sharing a single bathroom. No wonder he dreamed of America, migrating to Chicago. He became an elevator operator and met his wife before heading out to far warmer climates in LA and eventually Vegas, where he placed a tennis ball above Andre’s crib and then shaped him into an A-list prospect.
Richard Williams’ path was uncannily similar. Facing unvarnished racism in Shreveport, Louisiana (think: humiliation, brutal beatings, grinding poverty, and no pathways to significant success) Williams saw Chicago as his out, a dream destination where African-Americans had real jobs, homes that didn’t leak, and weren’t brutalized.
Williams hopped a freight train north and thought he’d arrived in heaven. African-Americans had cars, money, and could go to libraries. They didn’t beat you up for reading, like Williams said they did in Shreveport. He soon got a series of entry-level jobs and his own apartment.
But he became disillusioned, deeply disillusioned. It wasn’t that he was colder than he had ever been. After fierce, life-threatening confrontations with the police, he came to feel that Chicago “was far worse [than the South]. Chicago was an illusion. The best things were just as inaccessible to black people as they were back home. Maybe it was worse, because we were told they were within our reach … Here, black people thought they were free, but the same rules that applied in the South applied in the North. We still lived on the bottom … Everything was in stores. It took money to eat. In Shreveport, we could always steal a chicken or pull food from the ground.” Prejudice and hopelessness were endemic, and as Williams puts it, “Racism was a fact.” After yet another daunting run-in with the police, Williams told himself, “Even death was better than living another day in fear.”
So just like Mike Agassi, Williams left Chicago for LA, where he came up with his audacious master plan to raise two daughters who would win a lot of money, rule the courts, and change the game.
• Taylor Townsend—tennis’ celeb du jour—is a lot like her hometown: tough, charming, charismatic, singular, and a tad defiant. After the hot-tempered Russian Anastasia Rodionova gave her a hard time, she confided, “Lord Jesus thank you for giving me the strength to not go South Side of Chicago on that girl.”
What is clear, says Townsend’s co-coach Zina Garrison, is that Townsend does things her own way, and she wants to change tennis itself. (Newsflash: America’s first African-American President did come from Chicago.) Townsend doesn’t train in a traditional sunbelt tennis factory. She works out at modest facilities in Chicago and Washington D.C., and has two coaches.
In a once so-elite, so-white sport that has dealt with so many issues (anti-semitism, racism, and homophobia, for a start), Townsend may bring to the fore our debatable views about athletic body types and the very nature of beauty. Let’s face it, the attractive, full-figured 18-year old gives new meaning to the phrase “big babe tennis.” No, she doesn’t exactly make Serena look svelte, but to some she seems almost as big as John Isner is tall.
So what! More power to her!
Townsend seems remarkably comfortable in her Rubenesque frame. “She wants to be the player that changes the sport,” says Garrison. “So to do that you can’t let things harp over you … As for her appearance, I’ve told her over and over, she is what she is and she is what she is going to be and that she just has to be comfortable with herself, because we are all going to be judged on something.”
As for Townsend’s unique, net-friendly all-court game, Garrison says, “She is what I call retro in the new age … She is different.
She can change the way people think you should do things. I am a firm believer that everyone is individual. You can’t put people in boxes … [Our] whole philosophy is giving back. Don’t be some of these spoiled tennis players out here. I read an article on the little things that Novak Djokovic uses to motivate him and Taylor has the same things.”
Townsend also has a lot of other things going for her. In addition to a huge forehand, surprising quickness, a refreshing willingness to come to net, and enough guts to overcome a snarky “Yankee Go Home” French crowd, she now has some hefty mojo happening. The hottest tennis story in town, she’s drawing attention from British tennis players—Andy Murray tweeted, “How good is Taylor Townsend? #talent”—and happy-to-join-the bandwagon politicians. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn boasted, “This 18-year old southpaw’s grit and determination represent the best of Illinois.”
• Donald Young is another lefty African-American who grew up in Chicago before heading off to Georgia. And now, like Townsend, he is streaking in Paris. Young joked that he didn’t feel any pressure to be the player with Chicago roots who lasts the longest in Paris. He told IT about his early years in the city, saying, “That’s where the foundation was laid for my tennis … I was there from birth to 14. Most of my tennis and strokes and learning was there.
Being from there is awesome. The weather, I don’t miss. The people, I do. Chicago is a great city … I have a lot of fond memories. I played at Hyde Park Athletic Club and at Midtown. They were so nice to give me a scholarship and let me play there, because I couldn’t afford it … Alan Schwartz was great for that. My parents worked at Hyde Park, so I was able to get free court time there. Definitely in the summer you hit outdoors, all the public parks, where you could find a court open … I had a lot of guys that were around my age, and we were all around the same level … You just kind of grew together. It was awesome.”
Young added that he had known Townsend “since she was just in the cradle and all that. I would be over there [at their house a] couple times [when] I was sick. I had to go over after school, and my dad was working … I saw her grow up, and it’s great to see her playing well and winning matches. And to be at this level, it’s awesome. I’m really excited for her.”
When Young was asked about Townsend dealing with the hype machine, he said that Taylor “asks a few questions here and there. But she has a good team and we just talk about life and things. She is staying at our hotel. So we will sit down for breakfast, and we’ll talk about things in the past and her getting in trouble sometimes.
My parents and hers have been friends since before I was born, and my parents started her playing. They were like the first coaches … were always around … Her and her sisters, are … like [a] brother/sister type thing … [more] than friends. I have known them forever.”
• Thoughtful John Adams was the first and one of the most significant vice presidents in US history. Versatile Katrina Adams is one of the most significant USTA vice presidents in memory. Chicago-born, she won the NCAA doubles championship, climbed to No. 67 in the world in singles, reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, and won 20 doubles crowns with Townsend’s coach, Garrison. For years, she’s been the boss at the Harlem Junior Tennis League, as well as a Tennis Channel commentator. In the long history of the USTA, there have been many great African-American volunteers, but there hasn’t been a single African-American president. But Katrina, like that other vice president named Adams, should be changing all that.
• Adam is a pretty important guy in the Bible, and and so is Noah. The tennis connection here? Well, Joakim Noah, the son of France’s favorite tennis champion, Yannick Noah, is the beloved star of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls.
• Speaking of stars, Chicago entrepreneur Alan Schwartz not only founded a key Chicago club, he was the first person to emerge from the tennis industry to become president of the USTA.
• In 1897, five courts were built in Lincoln Park … Wilson, a storied tennis company, is based in Chicago … Chicago’s Andrea Jaeger turned pro at 14, reached No. 2 in the world at age 16, and eventually became a nun … Marty Riessen was a high school and Northwestern University standout, before winning six singles titles on the tour. He gained a No. 11 ranking and teamed with Margaret Court to win many of his nine Grand Slam titles … Chris Evert‘s tennis teaching dad Jimmy was born and raised in Chicago … Long ago, the US Clay Court Championships in suburban River Forest were a mainstay of the summer clay court circuit … Hall of Famers Frankie Parker and George Lott lived in the city and Lott was the long time coach at DePaul … Hyde Park’s Michelle Obama loves tennis.
