By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, April 6, 2016

 

"Roger Federer is always an incredible interview," says ESPN Grand Slam host Chris McKendry, talking tennis here with Darren Cahill, Roger Federer and Rod Laver.

Photo credit: ESPN

ESPN's Grand Slam host Chris McKendry makes a major move at Wimbledon this year.

Last week, McKendry, well-known to American viewers as a SportsCenter anchor for two decades, bid farewell to the Bristol-based SportsCenter desk to devote her time exclusively to the network's tennis coverage.

Watch: Roger Federer Tunes Up in Monte Carlo

Starting at this summer's Wimbledon, the Philadelphia native will focus on her duties as ESPN's Grand Slam host.

In a sense, it's a return to her roots. McKendry is a life-long tennis player, who earned a tennis scholarship to Division I Drexel where she played No. 6 singles. Her career change has given her time to resume her playing career: McKendry recently joined a women's tennis league in Connecticut.

A few days after her final SportsCenter appearance, McKendry sat down with Tennis Now for this interview in which she discusses ESPN's Grand Slam coverage, why Roger Federer is the best interview in tennis and what changes the game can make to become a more viewer-friendly sport.

Tennis Now: What were you thinking and feeling when you closed the chapter on your SportsCenter career? What excites you most about covering tennis full-time now?

Chris McKendry: I'm very excited for this change. From the time I was assigned the Australian Open in January of 2010, it hit me: This is the next step in my career. To be not just an anchor, but a host. To go to these big events, it's so exciting. I've told many people: It's one of those genies you can't put back in the bottle. Once you do a Grand Slam event, it's hard not to want to do it again. I just kept working at it with the hope that maybe I could make the transition to a full-time position.

I'm so excited, it's definitely something I planned for and worked for. That being said, the day before my last SportsCenter that's when it me, going into the Bristol studios, how many great people I'm probably not going to see again or work with again. Never say never, but a lot of the analysts that I know so well in tennis—like 10 minutes before you called I was chatting with Mary Joe (Fernandez) catching up—we're friends, we're close friends. I have a lot of analyst friends like that I've met in every sport because of SportsCenter. So it was emotional. It was more emotional than I expected on the last day, but it's been 20 years of my life. Now that my final SportsCenter is said and done, I'm moving on and excited.

TN: Which is the most challenging Grand Slam to cover and which is the most fun to cover?

Chris McKendry: The Slams all have their own individual personalities. I enjoy them all. I think the most fun we have as a team and as a crew—and I think the players agree—is in Australia. There is something about the Australian Open that is light, fun, the location is amazing. We get up and walk from our hotel to the venue. The weather is so great when quite a few of us are coming from the cold, so there's something about Australia that's really fun. I think being away, we're all away from our families, we really bond as a broadcast team. I absolutely love it. Wimbledon is amazing. We all stay in the village, to walk to the venue, and the great respect everyone has for Wimbledon and the venue is just unbelievable. I enjoy them all.

The US Open is classic New York. It's a bit more challenging because of shuttling out to the venue and back. So logistically, that's a little more challenging. But as far as the challenges of the broadcast for me it's getting myself in the mindset of how many hours I'm out there, sometimes 12 or 13 hours since we go first ball to last. The US Open and Australian can go late so it's kind of getting yourself prepared for the marathon. It's keeping your eyes on the monitors because we have every single match on every single court and knowing what's going on in each match. The first couple of days you're following storylines for half the field because you don't know necessarily who is going to emerge.

Wimbledon's Manic Monday is like a tennis tournament version of election day coverage. So the challenge when I went from SportsCenter to covering Grand Slams is that it pushed me out of my comfort zone. SportsCenter is very heavily scripted. There's not a ton of change, results are known. Do a tournament and it's happening while we're there. The results aren't known. The stories are happening in real time. So I enjoy that. The same is true of the player interviews. When they come by our set, I'll have 5 or 10 minutes to prepare for it whereas on SportsCenter I would sit and review my questions with our producer, sit and go over it with my co-anchor. So it's been professionally challenging, too.

TN: It's been such a crazy year in the game. How will ESPN balance the big scandal stories of the sport—the gambling and Sharapova doping issues—with the actual sport and the match coverage at Wimbledon? What can we expect to see from ESPN's coverage?

Chris McKendry: We ran into this in Australia this year. It was a very news-heavy tournament because of the gambling story and with Nigel Sears collapsing. I did quite a few SportsCenter hits from over there to cover the news side of the sport. We have to cover it. We have to cover it for the integrity of the sport and for the integrity of ESPN. I believe during Wimbledon, over the summer, is when the heads of tennis are being called before parliament. So of course that's going to be a huge story. That's akin to Major League Baseball being called before congress. We will definitely cover it. We will try not to take away from live action to have to talk about it, but we will cover it the same way we did in Australia: Straight down the middle. As for Sharapova and what kind of suspension will be handed down, I don't know all the facts so I will not speculate what I think should happen. And I don't think anybody else should either until all the facts are in, but that will definitely set a tone across the board.

TN: What kind of player were you in college? If you had to compare your style to any of your ESPN tennis colleagues—Chrissie Evert's classic baseline game, Pam Shriver or Darren Cahill's serve-and-volley style or Brad Gilbert's manic, chatty mental and tactical warfare that wore down opponents—whose style of play would it be? Do you still play now?

Chris McKendry: It's funny you say that because I just signed up for a women's league at our club. Since I'm not on SportsCenter, I can actually do things in the afternoon now. I'm getting back into it. Was I a really good player? I don't know. Yes, I played Division I tennis, but let's be honest: I was the sixth singles player and played doubles as well. So I always want to put it out there that it was Drexel University. It wasn't Florida, it wasn't Stanford. I was a solid tennis player. I played a ton of sports growing up. Tennis happened to be the one, at the end of high school, that I was excelling at.

I'd say I played more Chrissie style. I went to college in 1986 so it was definitely 1980s, the Prince pro racquet, heavy topspin, going forehand to forehand back and forth. So that was kind of my playing style, I wasn't very aggressive. I wasn't attacking the net too often in college, but I did like doubles and still like doubles. Maybe I can let you know after I get into this women's league. My 13-year-old son, he's been down to Chrissie's Academy and it gives us a chance to hang out too so it's great.



TN: Given your experience covering other sports, what does tennis do well as a television sport? What can tennis learn from other sports to become an even better television sport?

Chris McKendry: As far as our broadcast, the analysts are fantastic. You like tennis. I like tennis. We know the sport and we love to talk about the sport. When you hear Mary Joe or Darren it's like getting your PhD in tennis. Our analysts do an incredible job of breaking down strokes, strategy, styles. Our analysts are top-notch and they aren't afraid to say things. Having covered other sports, there are a lot of analysts who don't want to say anything too critical. Our tennis analysts have done a great job of being critical in a constructive sense. They're critical, but it's never nasty or personal. So I appreciate that they say something. There's nothing more frustrating than working with an analyst who never says anything or is just right down the middle every time and does not want to offend.

It's funny you ask because there's been a big discussion within our ESPN tennis crew: How can we evolve in our tennis broadcasts? I do believe there are areas we are behind other sports. The biggest, to me, is access during a match. How can we get more of a feel for what players are thinking and feeling in the moment? We tried something very daring—apparently the way everybody's head nearly exploded over it—at last year's US Open when Pam (Shriver) went on court with CoCo (Vandeweghe). There was a time when those pre-match interviews seemed crazy, you know, "Why would you talk to a player as they're walking on court?" And now, players all do those. Some say more than others and it depends on what the player wants to share. I would love to see the on-court interview during matches as more of a regularity. I think it would be amazing. Imagine Roger Federer telling you what he likes about his first set? I think that would be fascinating to have more access to players during competition. Look at other sports: We have players who wear mikes for us during competition. If we put a mike on Andy Murray could we air anything anyway? I don't know, but these elements I think would bring the viewer closer and feel more attached to the player. I always say to the athletes: If you want us to promote your sport, give us more access to you. Find time for long-form interviews, take us through where did you grow up. Allow us to know you more.

TN: Tennis is so tough because the pressure is all on the individual. We've seen what pressure can do great champions like Serena and Rafa. Live television has it's own pressure: If you screw up you can't fix it. How do you cope with the pressure of live TV?

Chris McKendry: The experience that comes with the pressure of being live for 20 years at ESPN helps and so it feels like second nature to me. I don't get nervous, it's more like being buttoned up. I always put in a ton of homework and try go on the air very well prepared. I don't want to look down at notes. I think one of the things that make for good hosting is I can't break eye contact with my analyst to always look down at my notes. The best analysts are the one who like you to listen to them and like you to participate in the conversation. You don't want to just be firing off nuggets of information at people then have them respond while you're looking down at notes. Think of it in real life. If you're talking to someone and they're looking away from you all the time, you'd be like "What's going on here?" So I try to be well prepared, stay in the moment, be a conversationalist and I know our tennis analysts will never let me down because there's nothing that they can't carry, nothing they can't address. So that makes me very comfortable.

The person I really admire as a host is Ernie Johnson on TNT. I've always tried to do that: My job is tee it up and get out of the way. As a tennis fan, I want to hear what Chrissie and the two McEnroes are saying. I think the easiest thing for me is to be extremely prepared and keep it simple and let them go.

TN: Of all the champions you've interviewed, who really stands out as a great, enjoyable interview, fun personality or someone you just learned from?

Chris McKendry: Roger Federer is always an incredible interview. When he commits to doing press, Roger is all in. My favorite moments when Roger comes to set is how often after the interview when there's a match on our monitors, which there always is, he'll sit and watch tennis and chat with you about the tennis. It's priceless. It is absolutely priceless. He loves the game.