STORIES AS A DAVIS CUP CAPTAIN

As a tennis coach there can be few experiences that equal sitting in the court as a Davis Cup Captain. You’re an integral part of the drama and at the core of the excitement is the fact that you are communicating directly with the player and therefore participating in the match.

The conditions we experienced in the different countries varied greatly. We were drawn to play Kuwait in an early round of the 1990 Competition during the time of Ramadan, a month of fasting for Muslims around the world.  During the daylight hours you are expected to abstain from drinking and eating which would have been fine if we didn’t have to play the best of five sets in the hot desert sun.  The tie was broadcast locally live on TV and during the changeovers the camera would discreetly pan away from the players and into the crowd, allowing players from both countries to drink water! The timing of our return home was fortunately two weeks before Kuwait was invaded by neighboring Iraq, or we may have been trapped there during the hostilities.

In Iran one year the Thai team was jogging around the tennis complex before a practice session when a horrified grounds man came running to tell us to cover our legs.  It seems it was improper for men to display their legs in public, even playing sport.  On a similar topic we were later shown a far hill with seating for about 6 people, which was the seating used by women to watch the tennis.  It was at least 200 meters up the hill and I guess had something to do with naked men’s legs again.

Crowds play a big part in Davis Cup ties, none more so than in our tie against Sri Lanka also in 1990 when I was lucky to get off the court in one piece.  During the weekend there were 14 over-rules from the local umpire, all going against Thailand! On each overrule I got out of my seat to protest to the neutral ITF referee.  Sometimes the protest was brief but many times a full dispute developed.  In the middle of one particularly heated dispute, with the Sri Lankan crowd chanting obscenities at me, I happened to look up at the Thai section in the crowd and caught the eye of the President of the Thai Tennis Association.  His look was one of “I’m glad you’re out there and not me”!

Having an input in the eventual result of some matches was thrilling; it was like captain and player competing as a duo.  I would use my tactical knowledge and the players would use their physical and technical skills.  Danai Udomchoke was playing an Iranian in Teheran during an opening singles match several years ago.  The local player was built like a bull, huge legs and incredible power in his shots.  Danai on the other-hand could have been mistaken for one of the ball boys.  Despite his small stature Danai was later to reach #79 on the ATP world rankings and is a great player.

I guess the Iranian saw Danai enter the court and could smell victory, after-all his opponent was so small and he had a large group of friends in attendance to witness what would be a comprehensive victory.  The first 2 games went by real fast with the Iranian blasting winners left and right.  Danai looked over at me wondering how to stem the flow of winners.  It also didn’t help that on every winner from the Iranian his friends would bang the tin fence surrounding the centre court in approval. The place was going nuts!

What I did next changed the match almost immediately.  At the next changeover I stood up from my courtside chair and applauded the Iranian as he came to sit down.  This guy was playing the match of his life, in Davis Cup competition and with his friends and family watching on from the stands.  He was literally playing on rocket fuel and now the opposition Captain was acknowledging his superiority! When they returned to the court the Iranian attacked the ball again, only the half-court forehand on the first point completely missed the court hitting the back fence with a loud bang.  On the next point he hit a backhand passing shot into the bottom of the net.  The tide had turned and Danai stormed back to win easily.  For the rest of the match the friends who had been so supportive in the beginning stopped banging the tin fence and fell silent. 

Overall I Captained Thailand 13 times in Davis Cup Competition.  I also Captained Thailand in Federation Cup, Asian Games and South East Asian Games competitions.  But it was the Davis Cup which was special to me and from where many of my best memories come from.

OUR WEEK IN TRIVANDRUM, INDIA

Many of my stories come from the trips I have taken to tennis tournaments around the world.  I have traveled to 24 different countries with a whole range of players.  Each country is different and some really funny things happen on these trips.

My time at the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Scheme also took me to many towns and cities within India.  I particularly enjoyed one trip to the city of Trivandrum in the state of Kerala. Kerala is located in south India and has a wonderful climate and a very peaceful feel about it.  I had made this trip to Trivandrum with a team of 6 boys from our training base in Madras.  We traveled by train and arrived quite late at night.  Anyone who has traveled on trains in India knows the chaos when you arrive at your destination.  Dozens of bag carrier’s hassle for the opportunity to carry your bags for the few rupees you must pay.  Some of these guys balance 2-3 large bags on top of their heads and walk through swarms of people, carts and the inevitable stairways before getting outside the station.

More chaos develops outside the station when you now negotiate for transportation to your hotel.  The difficulty is that you are negotiating a transport fee to a hotel you have never been to before and have no idea the exact distance it is from the station.

When you do finally make it to your hotel you can still be told that there are no rooms available and you must continue to look around the city for other accommodation. Trivandrum was no different on this trip and it was about 1:00am in the morning when we finally got to our two rooms and prepared to get some much needed sleep.

On this occasion I was sharing a room with Bhaskar Chowdury and Anirban Baruah.  We quickly organized our bags, got into bed and turned the light off. What followed next I will remember forever and it has become the source of much laughter whenever our old team gets together.  Laying there in the dark, after a long train journey from Madras we each took our turn saying our goodnights.  When we had finished saying goodnight I let out a audible sigh and said “aah, bed at last”! Suddenly a deafening bang shook the small room and gave each of us a huge fright.  The noise had come from outside and we rushed to our window to see what had happened outside.  We stood looking out the window in disbelief.  Our hotel backed onto the local railway station but not only that, we were directly outside the area where the carriages were shunted together in preparation for their journey. Every ten minutes this enormous collision of carriages took place just outside our window!

After Trivandrum whenever I reached my destination I always checked the view outside my window to see who my neighbors were for the coming week. 

THE SRICHAPHAN FAMILY OF THAILAND

Talking with Paradorn during the filming of "Asian Ace"

When I first arrived in Asia at the start of my tennis coaching career very few Asian players featured on the world tennis scene.  Michael Chang was about to emerge as a top player but he was never really considered a product of Asia.  His parents had left Taiwan for the US many years before and he developed his tennis in the US.  South East Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia and The Philippines had talented players back then but none that could earn a living on the main tour. 

Within my first few weeks of living in Thailand I remember going to the local tennis centre and watching the Thailand National Championships.  The final was between two eighteen year olds, Woraphol Thongkamchu and Thanakorn Srichaphan.  I was surprised how talented both these guys were. This early exposure to Thai tennis probably planted the seed in my mind that I would one day coach the Thai National teams.  I eventually had a long association with Thai tennis and captained the Thai Davis Cup and Federation Cup teams for several years.

The Srichaphan family was already a prominent feature at local tournaments.  Thanakorn the eldest brother played singles in the Thai Davis Cup Team and was ranked 1 or 2 in the country for many years.  Narathorn the middle brother was already a top ten junior in the world and eventually reached the quarter-finals at junior Wimbledon in 1990.  As Davis Cup Captain I would inevitably select the two Srichaphan brothers for our ties against the other countries.

Paradorn Srichaphan was only six years old when I arrived in Thailand but I followed his progress in the local junior tournaments and he was obviously going to be as successful as his two older brothers. 

Behind the scenes was their father Chanachai Srichaphan who took his three sons to the court every morning before school started.  Chanachai was a tough task master who believed that hard work took you places in life.  He had been a bank clerk in Khon Khaen, nine hours drive north of Bangkok when his eldest son began to have some success in local junior tournaments.  Based on that success he moved his entire family to Bangkok to pursue the tennis dream.  They lived for many years in a hut beside a volley wall at the Bangna Tennis Club.  Somehow Chanachai, his wife, three growing sons and their grandmother lived in that one room hut.  It can’t have been easy but Chanachai had a dream and each son would later invest in that same dream.

I was privileged to watch Paradorn climb the tennis rankings until he became the 9^th ranked player in the world.  Perhaps my favourite memory however is watching Paradorn beat Andre Agassi on centre court at Wimbledon.  Paradorn out-hit Agassi from the baseline that day and thoroughly deserved his win, but it was his father in the players box that stole the show for me.  Here was a man who had risked all to pursue a dream that started many years earlier back in Khon Khaen.  He had sat in the famed players box of the most famous court in the world and watched his son beat the defending Wimbledon Champion and a legion of the game.  The dream had come true for Chanachai.

I have been able to stay in touch with the Srichaphan family since the boys retired from professional tennis.  Thanakorn and Narathorn now coach, Thanakorn back in his hometown and Narathorn in Bangkok.  Paradorn enjoys a life as a local celebrity and is involved in a wide variety of projects, including a small part in a Thai movie as an ancient Thai warrior.  He is known and respected throughout Asia.

I was privileged to meet them early in my coaching career.  They are an amazing family who were blessed to turn a dream into a reality.

GETTING SACKED AND THE HASBRO MAN

My days working at the Hilton Hotel in Bangkok as Head Tennis Coach were numbered when the new General Manager arrived.  New General Manager’s like to announce their arrival with acts of change, whether the change makes sense or not.  I have seen some new General Manager’s cut down trees, replace ponds, alter a lobby and change personnel, anything to demonstrate that they have arrived and they are the boss.

When I first arrived at the hotel in 1986, some 15 months earlier, I had made it my mission to increase the number of hotel guests that took lessons.  In the beginning 60% of lesson revenue came from local Bangkok residents and only 40% from guests staying in the hotel.  To do this I created a register of the guests who took lessons.  I would write to thank them once they left the hotel and returned to their home countries and if they were coming back to the hotel, I had a tennis greeting card under their door when they arrived.  This extra effort was appreciated and many guests began to come back just for the tennis.  Sometimes they would contact me instead of the hotel reservation office to book room nights!  This experience showed me that it was the small things that brought a guest back to your hotel and not the size of the room nor the standard of your restaurants, as these things don’t really vary that much from hotel to hotel.  The guests I made friends with during that time were glad to have someone they knew and could call a friend around the hotel, particularly after a long day of business meetings.

When I finally got the call to meet the new General Manager in his office I knew what to expect.  His wife and son were keen tennis players and I was using the courts more and more as the number of lessons kept growing.  I was told that the contract would be terminated because nobody (from his family) could get on the courts. 

Initially I was disappointed that he had not looked closer at the effort I was putting in to create repeat business but soon realized that I needed to move on with my career also.  I did however want to teach him a lesson.

I began to notify all my contacts that my contract with the hotel had been terminated and that I would be leaving.  This I could have done after leaving but by informing them beforehand I knew a storm of protest would develop.  Sure enough the GM began to get letters (this was pre-email) from disgruntled guests saying that the tennis facility was the only reason they kept coming back and that without the tennis they would change hotels on future visits.  The General Manager was furious but I simply said that I was informing my “friends” that I was moving on.

The best of these protest letters arrived about 3am in the morning.  The phone rang in my room and a well spoken woman informed me that she was Mr. Alan Hasenfeld’s secretary and that he was sending a letter to the Hilton General Manager; would I mind listening to the letter before she sent it?  She proceeded to read the letter which outlined how many room nights Alan’s company, Hasbro Toys, had spent at the Hilton and that if Paul Dale left they would consider changing to another hotel in Bangkok.  Alan Hasenfeld was the president of Hasbro Toys and had a personal wealth of 400 million dollars.  We had become close friends during his many stays at the Hilton Bangkok and he was letting the Hilton know that he was ready to change if his tennis was taken away.

I did eventually leave the Hilton and later that same General Manager left the Hilton to work for a rival hotel chain.  That hotel chain was Four Seasons Hotel Group and through another close friend, I recommended to the owner that he be sacked, which he was.  Revenge was sweet.