Sporting Life

Insight, distress, cliche: Why press conferences are a worthy tennis ritual

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Whether they’re elated, dismayed, angry or frustrated, tennis stars like Carlos Alcaraz show up to explain themselves at press conferences.

Whether they’re elated, dismayed, angry or frustrated, tennis stars like Carlos Alcaraz show up to explain themselves at press conferences.

PHOTO: REUTERS

“I lose the score.”

English isn’t her first language, yet at her US Open press conference the charming, candid Zheng Qinwen articulates perfectly the grammar of tennis. That moment when she’s so deeply encased in a membrane of concentration that she forgets what the score is. Playing point by point till she doesn’t know what point she’s at.

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