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The Rediff Interview / Henri Leconte

"Today tennis is business, it is not a sport"

Three is the number of surgeries he has had on his back. Four is the highest he has ever been ranked on the ATP circuit. And five, he says, is the maximum number of years that any player, here on in, will be able to dominate the game.

That is 38-year-old Henri Leconte, the maverick Frenchman tennis ace.

A junior French Open winner at age 17, Leconte won his first major title in 1982 and can easily be tagged as the only world-class player never to have won a singles Grand Slam title. He did win a French Open doubles title, partnering Yannick Noah in 1984 -- but on balance, you would have to say that Leconte never really did justice to his talent.

Then again, Slams are not what the French ace is about -- he makes no bones about the fact that his personal high point was the win against the US in the 1991 Davis Cup finals. "For us, the Davis Cup came before the Grand Slams in importance," he says. "I think it's very important to play for your country."

Leconte was born in Lillers, France, and since 1995 has been staying in the Lake Geneva area, of Switzerland. He plays the senior circuit eight months in the year, and still gets the crowds going with his brand of serve and volley. And on the side, Leconte also dabbles in television, hosting chat shows.

Taking time off from winning the recent Masters tournament in Mumbai, beating no less than Bjorn Borg in the finals, Leconte discusses the sport he loves with Faisal Shariff. Excerpts:

Has French tennis realized its potential?

Tennis is not the number one sport in France, you need to understand that. Soccer was always number one and after our World and European Cup wins, the passion for soccer is unmatched. Then there is the Tour De France, and athletics is also huge.

We need to have at least five players in the top ten. Right now we have two, Sebastien Grosjean and Arnaud Clement. We need more players, we need a number one. I think Clement will do well. Pioline is gone, though I hope he comes back. We need stars, for French tennis to look up. The new generation needs to come in quickly. Times have changed since Yannick Noah and I retired from the circuit.

Where does the game stand today, according to you?

Today, tennis is a business, it is not a sport anymore. There are no personalities, the new generation is very disappointing. Sure, the game has changed, the ATP is stricter about what you can do on court, the game has become professional, with trainers and managers and psychologists, you name it they have it. I don't think all that is good for the game.

The essence of the game has been lost. The players today don't realise that finally, it is only a game. They have forgotten how to enjoy playing, and that is not the way to play, my friend. You have to enjoy playing, that is what it is meant for.

If you could change tennis as it is played today, what would you do?

I would never want to change the game. No way! The game can't change now. It should go as it is. Maybe the size of the balls could change. The bigger balls are not so bad on hard courts. They could be tried there.

Last thing I heard, when I played with wooden racquet, was about the graphite racquet. After that they told me change to the titanium racquet. I did that, and now I hear there is some new material. Change, I guess, is inevitable.

So what ails the sport, then?

Money. There is too much money in the game today. You can't make a game into a business, just like you can't make business into a game, though maybe the stock market is like playing a game. That to my mind is terrible. Tennis is a game; enjoy it.

Earlier the game had character. Each player was a personality. Earlier, I could tell you who the top ten guys were, for any year. Today I can't. I know Agassi is now number one but that is all, I don't know most of the others on the list. Tennis is not popular any more, maybe excepting the Grand Slams, and the Davis Cup. There was romance in tennis once, there is nothing of the kind in the sport any more.

Who did you enjoy playing against the most?

I loved playing Lendl on grass; Becker on clay. That guy, Becker, he had no clue about how to play on clay, he didn't have the technique for it. On the other hand, I would hate playing Mats Wilander on clay -- he was awesome on it, he had the perfect game for it.

So what is the key to succeed on clay?

You have to come to the net all the time. Kuerten is successful because he mixes it up all the time, he doesn't play just the one thing. On clay you have to be offensive, you must provoke, you can't stay back.

Mary Pierce won the French last year and seems to have arrived, how do you read her game?

She is a strong lady; very elegant, a very good player. Yet she is very difficult to understand, she is a mental challenge. One day she is a diva, the other day she's gone, like moonlight.

They say left-handers have an edge when it comes to tennis...

Yes, I think so. They have more touch. Also, I think that right-handers struggle on the other part of the court. Left-handers are better with the backhand; right-handers use too much topspin on backhand shots. Look at Rod Laver, McEnroe or Connors. Great touch players, they all had great backhands. Connors too was a magician with a racquet, he would find angles you would fail to understand, forget trying them yourself.

Is too much tennis affecting the longevity of players?

Yes, I think so. Even though our generation was not prepared for professionalism, there were long periods of dominance by various players. Around the early eighties, more coaches came into the picture and that helped matters -- but mark my words, no player will last physically that long, not as long as they used to before.

After four, five years at the top, the players will just burn out. I think Sampras is the last dominant player of our time, I doubt there will be another era of such dominance ever again.

You come across as a happy person, tell us about your personal life...

I have been married twice and unfortunately, divorced twice as well. I have two kids and I am very proud of them. But, now I have decided to think only about me. I am too nice. I have been too generous. My personal life has affected my game a lot because I am a very sensitive person. I want to live my life to the fullest now. And by staying single I am not doing too badly.

Weren't you seeing Gabriela Sabatini?

No way! I know you want me to say that I was seeing her and scoop a story. But you are not getting it from me. We were very good friends and I haven't seen her in a long time. I hope she is doing okay.

What is the one single aspect of India that attracts you?

The people here are very keen, and happy. They look at us Europeans with a lot of affection, I suppose because down deep, most of them have this dream of getting out of India, going to Europe or whatever. The niceness of the people here can be overwhelming sometimes. And I keep coming here to realize that what we have back home is great. It helps you realise just how good life has been to you.

Do you have any regrets? You don't have a single Slam singles title -- do you think your results justified your talent?

No way. I don't regret a thing. I have had three back injuries, and after a surgery to come back and beat Pete Sampras was for me amazing. I played the perfect match of my life. Just two weeks before that game, I could not put the ball in the court. I was not fazed at all. I knew the pressure would be on him. We all know his performance on clay. My main goal was to win. I don't bother about records or history when I play. I play to win.

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