My interview with Mary Carillo

Mary Carillo: An American Original

Pioneer Women’s Tennis Commentator, Elected to Hall of Fame

“She’s always going to be a superstar. I used to always tell her, ‘You’re going to be a superstar . . . you have the gift.’ She’s so articulate. I just love her so much as a friend—that’s what I really love about Mary—she gives so much of herself. She goes and emcees for everybody. She does her homework … and she’s disciplined.” – Billie Jean King

Mary Carillo likes to say, “I don’t speak English; I speak American.” Her unique blend of sports jargon, candor, and enthusiasm makes her an American original as an analyst and reporter who covers tennis for a host of major television networks.

In her junior days, Carillo often played tennis all day at the Douglaston Club on Long Island, New York, with another feisty lefty named John McEnroe. Both idolized Rod Laver, and when John was 18 and Mary 20, they grabbed big-time glory by winning the 1977 French Open mixed doubles championship.

Carillo rose to No. 33 in the world in singles, but chronic knee problems forced her into early retirement in 1980. She then taught tennis under Harry Hopman, the legendary Australian Davis Cup captain, for two years before USA Network discovered her broadcasting talents.

Insightful and probing, yet sensitive and humorous, Carillo was acclaimed as the “Best Announcer on Television” by World Tennis magazine in 1990 and by Tennis magazine from 1989–92. Tennis included Carillo, then broadcasting the sport for ESPN and CBS, as the only media star in its “20 most powerful people in tennis” article in 1992.

In its encomium to Carillo and her fast-growing popularity, Tennis wrote, “With just the right blend of intelligence and irreverence, the game’s liveliest voice has become tennis’ voice of authority to those whose only exposure to the game is through TV.”

If Carillo reminds many tennis fans of Bud Collins, the iconic American journalist and TV commentator, it’s no accident. “His writing, his keen observations, and his sense of fun formed all my own ideas about how to cover tennis,” Carillo told me in 2015. Like the eclectic, entertaining Collins, she spread her storytelling wings to broadcast other events beyond tennis at 16 Summer and Winter Olympic Games, including swimming, skiing, athletics, and badminton.

During the 2004 Athens Games, Mary went full comedienne, doing what she calls her “crazy mother rant.” What started as a serious explanation of badminton equipment morphed into a madcap story of backyard mayhem when a shuttlecock got stuck high in a tree. USA TODAY Sports called the episode “maybe the funniest thing on the internet.” (https://ftw.usatoday.com/story/sports/2016/08/10/mary-carillo-badminton-rant-athens-olympics/81811451007/)

In recent years, the versatile Carillo has covered The National Dog Show for NBC, which airs on Thanksgiving Day and regularly draws 20 million viewers. “So many dogs are bred to be athletes, to be hard working and loyal, way beyond human understanding. I so love covering them.”

As a correspondent for HBO’s “Real Sports,” Carillo earned four Emmy Awards, including two for Olympic coverage, and three Peabody Awards, including two for HBO documentaries (“Dare To Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sports” and “Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer”). In 2018, Mary was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

Carillo, the most distinguished women’s tennis broadcaster in history, will be enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in the Contributor category during the August 27–29, 2026 Induction Celebration at Newport, Rhode Island. The kid from Queens will accompany the king of tennis royalty—20-time major winner Roger Federer, the most beloved men’s tennis champion, into the tennis pantheon.

In this interview, Carillo, 68, talks about her roots, her trailblazing career as the first woman to regularly broadcast tennis, the most memorable and transformative people she covered, along with the burning controversies she analyzed. With the insights of an elder stateswoman, she also assesses today’s game and predicts what the future holds for our intriguing, ever-evolving sport.

“Everything depends on upbringing,” wrote Leo Tolstoy. How did your parents influence you and your siblings?

Carillo — My older brother Charlie and my younger sister Gina and I had a rather storybook childhood. We grew up in Douglas Manor in Queens, New York, a small town off Little Neck Bay, still close to Manhattan. We belonged to the Douglaston Club, which had a swimming pool and five tennis courts, but until I got serious about tennis, my parents could just as easily have found me down at the dock, fishing, or swimming. I followed the tides in the summertime. If it was high tide, I’d be down the block from the club. As long as our school grades were good, my parents gave the three of us freedom to do pretty much whatever we wanted to do, as long as we wasn’t too dangerously stupid.

We moved to Milan for two years when I was six years old. My dad was an art director and helped to make his ad agency’s Italian office a big success. We traveled around Europe—I’m certain it made me want to see as much of the world as I could. Apart from being an artist, he was a terrific athlete, with beautiful body awareness that made him look comfortable and capable playing any sport. The first time I beat him in tennis, at age 12 or so—really beat him—was one of the biggest days of my childhood. I could hear my mom whisper to my dad, “Did she really beat you?” and he replied, “She really did.”

My parents are still alive. My mom’s 95 and my dad will turn 100 in February. They were Depression-era kids. They both have lived lives of moderation, discipline, and optimism, and they taught us to be the same way. My mom continues to be a strict Irish Catholic, something none of her kids carried on, which was hard on her for a while. But we all came out okay. I think she’ll give us that. She had a lot to do with it.

You fell in love with tennis as a talented teenager at the perfect time and place. Tell me about that exciting era and your tennis pals.

Carillo — I was lucky in so many ways. I swam on the Douglaston Club swim team but kept getting swimmer’s ear. One day, I climbed out of the pool and saw Court One down below me. The Sirna family took the court, wearing classic Fred Perry clothing that looked elegant and very warm to a shivering nine-year-old. I watched them play, then began watching the club pro, Dan Dwyer, give lessons. He was a gem. I picked up balls as he taught, listening to him the whole time. He liked me for it. At the same time, John McEnroe, who lived up the block from the club, started playing, and Dan gave him plenty of time, too.

John started entering tournaments, so I did, too. He started attending the Port Washington Tennis Academy, I followed. It was a fantastic hotbed of tennis. Harry Hopman was the head of Port, and all I wanted was for the great Davis Cup Captain from Australia to notice me, spend time on my court, and see how much I wanted to get better. My mom drove me to the academy every day, and I stayed for hours every day. Vitas Gerulaitis was there at the same time, and his younger sister Ruta became my best friend. When Vitas played at Wimbledon for the first time, I couldn’t believe I knew someone who played there.

When Mr. Hopman moved down to Florida to begin his own academy, I was a senior in high school. He asked me if I wanted to go with him, to teach and train, and without asking my parents’ permission, I said yes. They let me. My mom was not thrilled, but they didn’t stand in the way.

I loved it there. Tennis was booming (in the 1970s), and world-class players came to train with Mr. Hopman. I worked for him for a few years and then again in between knee operations. He was everything to me.  

I turned pro at a time when tennis was so damn popular and exciting. I was in locker rooms with Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, Virginia Wade, Francoise Durr, Chrissie, Martina. Billie put me on the WTA Board of Directors. I played World Team Tennis for the New York Apples. Fred Stolle was our captain, and Billie Jean, Vitas Gerulaitas, and Joanne Russell were on the team. I hung around famous tennis writers Mike Lupica, Frank Deford, Pete Alfano, and Lesley Visser. I soaked up everything. My knees told me that my time in tennis would be short, so I played everywhere I could get into a draw. Maybe everyone thinks that their time was the best time, but boy, I truly believe my time was as good as it gets.  

When you started your broadcasting career with USA Network in 1980, you were 23. You had no TV experience and were entering a male-dominated field. Why did they hire you? And what were your thoughts and feelings as you embarked on your new career?

Carillo — When my knees gave out for the last time in the 1980 Wimbledon first round, I thought I’d go back to coaching for Mr. Hopman, then figure out what to do next. A few weeks after I got home from England, I got a call from Mark Stulburger, who was starting to produce women’s tennis for USA Network. Mark had heard me call a match from the WTA Finals in Madison Square Garden earlier in the year—a late-night match that I got thrown into after being interviewed by the MSG Network announcers. All the big players and celebrities had gone home, so there was no one else to talk to.

I had given the announcers every good reason why the upcoming Evonne Goolagong-Tracy Austin match was going to be good, and they liked my enthusiasm. They invited me to the booth for the whole match. Just a spare microphone in front of me. No headset, nothing. It was a fun match to call. It wasn’t a big deal to me... but Mark had caught my drive—by my appearance—and remembered me.

I wasn’t nervous calling a match or two for USA Network. I knew all the players, and I knew how they played. The money was okay, so I said yes to it, thinking it was going to be a one-shot deal. I had plenty to learn, and I was fascinated by the television end of it all. I couldn’t have been more raw, but Mark kept me around, taught me things, and let me get better.

It was almost entirely an all-men crew, but I was accepted because it was women’s tennis, and in that department, I knew more than the guys. It was rare that I felt out of my depth or apart from the crew. As the years went by and I started to call men’s matches, a few of the guys felt I wasn’t needed, which made me want to prove my worth even more. When I was with CBS, John McEnroe was hired, and he felt that I shouldn’t keep calling men’s matches. I should add that he had no interest in calling the women’s matches. More than anything, John was not a fan of three people booths. Fortunately for me the executive producer kept me in the mix, a decision not met well with John. Once we started, I think he realized that we worked well together, but he took convincing. It was not an easy time for me. Eventually, it normalized, but there were definitely some difficult days. I kept my head down and tried harder.

Were there skeptics and critics who doubted a young woman would succeed in this nearly all-men’s field? Who were your supporters?

Carillo — I had support from plenty of people. Billie Jean was cheering me on whenever I got work, and a lot of the WTA and ATP players were comfortable that I was around. I’d played some professional tennis. They knew me and trusted that I knew what I was looking at.

The truth is, every break I ever had came from a man, because men were almost exclusively in charge. I had producers who were solidly behind me, fellow announcers who gave me space. I got some good reviews, which didn’t hurt. I tried to stay consistent, to see the game and its players with clear eyes.

Which tennis broadcasters do you admire? Did you try to emulate them in any way?

Carillo — Bud Collins was the first announcer I ever remember listening to, and I thought he was tremendous. The classic blend of reverence and irreverence. I wanted to sound like Bud Collins. I also admired Cliff Drysdale, a former player, who was a good analyst, then slid over to the play-by-play position. I wanted to be able to do that as well. I was lucky to spend years in the booth with Cliff and Fred Stolle, who was so casually astute and likable. Fred said exactly what he thought and made it sound right. I admired that as well.

You’ll be inducted into the Hall of Fame with Roger Federer, one of the three greatest men’s champions of all time and the most popular. You called many of Roger’s most memorable matches during his illustrious career. What stands out most about Roger both as a player and an ambassador for tennis?

Carillo — It’s Roger’s elegance, on and off the court, isn’t it? He makes hard things look supremely simple. He had all the time in the world, on and off the court. He never seemed rushed and was rarely angry on the court, and in press conferences, usually in three languages, he answered the same damn questions over and over again with patience and grace. Grace. If I only had one word to explain Roger, it would be grace.

You covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Some tennis stars have considered a gold medal even more prestigious than a Grand Slam title. Andre Agassi, who boasts a career Grand Slam and a gold medal at the Atlanta Games, famously said, “To win a Grand Slam [title] is the great thing in the sport, but to win an Olympics is the biggest thing you can do in all sports.” What were your most indelible Olympics memories?

Carillo — I remember how absolutely delighted and excited Yevgeny Kafelnikov was when he won gold for Russia at the (2000) Sydney Games. Nothing was bigger for him, for Russia, than the Olympics. It took him five sets to get past Tommy Haas, but I never doubted he would leave all of himself on that court. That same year, Serena and Venus entered the stadium for the Opening Ceremony, and hundreds of athletes from every sport swarmed them to meet them, get a photo with them. They were treated as though they were the most famous athletes there, and it looked like they could compete in about ten different summer events, so fit and assured were they.

I didn’t call the men's final, but Andy Murray taking the gold at the 2012 London Games was magical.  

At the (1996) Atlanta Games, Lindsay Davenport won gold, which meant the world to her, coming from an Olympic volleyball family. Andre Agassi hadn’t won a title all year (in 1996), and he too had a father who represented his home country (Iran), in boxing. When Andre won, it was the happiest I’d ever seen him.  

But the Paris Olympics final between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz was as enthralling a match as I could ever have imagined. Novak’s play and reaction when it was all over and he’d delivered gold to Serbia. I won’t forget that either.  

Like the irreverent Bud Collins, you are renowned for witty wordplay. At the 2013 French Open, when many spectators cheered as muscular Rafael Nadal took off his shirt after beating Novak Djokovic in a thrilling five-set semifinal, you quipped, “He’s getting a hand for his chest.” When your old pal and doubles partner John McEnroe persuaded the USTA and TV moguls to remove you from your scheduled broadcast of a Davis Cup match, you wisecracked, “They took the broad out of broadcasting.” You were funny, but the incident was no laughing matter. What happened?

Carillo — John made things rough for me later on, but this Davis Cup thing was something the USTA (United States Tennis Association) had demanded of ESPN. The USTA decreed that to call Davis Cup matches, an announcer had to have actually played Davis Cup for his country. It was asinine and sexist. Fortunately for me, the ESPN producer, a man named Brian Williams, told ESPN that if I couldn’t be there for Davis Cup, he wouldn’t be there either. Fortunately, for me, that cockamamie rule was dropped.

Why is humor an important attribute for a sports broadcaster?

Carillo — In this crazy world, having a sense of humor is essential. I endeavor to be both serious and unserious on the air. It could be when a player does something wonderful or strange. Or when the crowd reacts to some nutty thing like “Iggy the Iguana,” who climbed a back fence to watch a Miami Open match, then jumped onto the court and eluded staffers for five minutes. If you can measure the moment and make your booth mate and the viewer smile, it’s a good day. Especially if you’re talking about a sporting event, it’s good to keep things in perspective.

In 1999, you teamed with Sports Illustrated’s Frank Deford to co-write the Peabody Award–winning HBO documentary Dare to Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sports. What motivated you to do this project, and which stories were dearest to your heart?

Carillo — Once again, Billie Jean King impacted my life in the deepest way. HBO was planning to do a documentary on the history of women athletes, and Billie Jean, who’d been working for HBO for many years, suggested that I join in as a consultant. I was to go to a meeting or two with Billie and the other consultant, swimming great and sportscaster Donna DeVerona, to listen to the producer’s and director’s vision for the documentary, and with Ross Greenburg, the head of HBO Sports.

You know me, Paul. Instead of quietly sitting through a meeting like this, I started spit-balling ideas—who we should include, which sports we needed to include, how far back we should go, what about race car driving, and Suzanne Lenglen...on and on. Ross Greenburg saw how excited I was by the project and bumped me up from consultant to interviewer. I got to sit with a bunch of the athletes—Billie, Martina and Chrissie, Pat Summitt, Donna Lopiano, Katherine Switzer, Eleanor Holm, Nancy Lieberman, and Sheryl Swoopes—and Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique. After a few months, Ross upgraded me once more. Frank Deford would write the first half of the documentary, and I’d write the second half, from when women’s rights started to take off. It was a thrill to be part of that storytelling, and Frank Deford was a gem.

You’re an accomplished writer. Do you plan to write more about tennis in one genre or another, and perhaps write a memoir?

Carillo — I so admire writers. My brother has been a writer from a young age, as a columnist for the New York Post, as a writer and producer for the nightly TV show “Inside Edition,” and he has authored ten novels. I enjoy writing very much, but he’s better. Maybe one of these days I’ll be disciplined enough to commit myself to the art form. In the meantime, I like writing to images. I’m currently developing and writing scripts for the Milan Torino Olympics.

How has TV tennis broadcasting evolved since the 1970s, when you first watched it, and the 1980s, when you debuted and developed as a broadcaster to today, when Tennis Channel broadcasts 24/7?

Carillo — Whew. It’s changed so much, and forever. In the beginning when I worked, we were sometimes on tape, for one thing. We showed matches in pieces; we commentated after the tennis was over. And we had such limited graphics. One of my very best friends, the late Leo Levin, had so much to do with better stats, analytics, and graphics.  

I personally think there’s often too much screen time overly devoted to numbers, replays, predictions, betting odds, and the like. Especially betting odds—I hate that. I could rant about betting in tennis for hours, and it wouldn’t be pretty. And as much as I can respect the efficiency of using AI in tennis, I truly hope our sport doesn’t lean on it too much. Some of AI is truly illuminating. Too much of it puts me off. I wish Leo Levin, whom I called “The Doctor” for his incisive diagnoses of players’ games, was still around. So much of this is a matter of taste, and how TV can at once show the sport in a way that’s entertaining and instructive. And to my mind, Leo had the best taste in tennis.

You publicly ‌acknowledged being gay in 2008. What was the reaction to your revelation in the broadcasting and tennis world?

Carillo — I don’t think of myself as coming out at a certain time. It was an open secret, if you can call it that. I’d been married for fifteen years to a great guy [Bill Bowden], and we’d been raising two children before I came to realize my (sexual) orientation. The worst part of it, apart from the pain I caused them, was having to explain it to my mother. She was beyond consolation. She was convinced that I’d lose everything—my children, my work, that my reputation would be destroyed forever, that I’d never see heaven.  

Very, very slowly, she came to see that I wasn’t going anywhere, that I was still a good mom, that my ex-husband and I were both going to be good, and were going to stay connected to each other. I didn’t lose work. No one shunned me. The kids are good. My ex and I get along very well. My mom came all the way back to me. It wasn’t easy, but it worked out okay.  

In 2010, you were named President of USTA Serves – Foundation for Academics, Character and Excellence. What did this charity accomplish under your leadership?

Carillo — It’s a terrific organization. Pam Shriver was the first president, and she held the title, I believe, for eight years, and really gave it heft. Then Patrick McEnroe took the reins, until he asked me to be the next president. I’m not sure I had a specific impact, truly. I sure learned a lot, though. I got to visit places where the charity was making big impacts on the lives of the underserved. I got to hear stories. One was about a young girl who was so happy playing tennis and held so much promise, but then she stopped coming. It turned out to be because she’d outgrown all her siblings’ sneakers...stories like that. How we were able to help...how children had a safe place after school because of the USTA, had computers so they could do their homework. It was a moving experience.

The next president was James Blake, and now it’s Chrissie (Evert), who has done great things and has raised a lot of money for the foundation. I’m glad to have been a small part of it. And I got to see just how smart and aware Katrina Adams is, as a board member, a leader, a crucial voice for us in the sport.  

What were the major surprises about the evolution of pro tennis during your 55-year tennis career?

Carillo — I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise, really—the sport has gone from three grass court majors to one—but the switch made a lasting, unfortunate impact on serve-and-volley tennis. So many players now play exactly the same way, mostly from the baseline, with power and spin that did not exist when I began to play this sport. More than anything, power is the coin of the realm.

Wooden racket tennis could not produce the tennis that is now commonplace. String technology has helped create shots that did not exist when I began my tennis. And facing two- handed backhands was a daunting and enormous change to serve and volleyers like me. My plan of attack had been simple—serve to the backhand, come in and knock off a volley. Mister Hopman used to say to us, “On a big point, what would you rather do—hit a volley or come up with a passing shot?” Volley. It made sense. But two hands on the backhand made that easy equation go away. There was no longer any good place to safely hit into.

Now I would teach a one-handed backhand only as a changeup. Martina and Pete Sampras still think serve and volley is the way to go, but that has become a changeup, too. And would it really have been wise to consistently serve and volley to hitters and movers like Serena and Venus?

That’s why when a player like Carlos Alcaraz comes along and wants to use every inch of the court, play each point differently, and surprise us with his imagination, he breathes life into the game and its possibilities.

You reported on some extraordinary people on HBO Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Tell me about them and their inspiring stories.

Carillo — I got to work on television's best-ever sports show for 27 years. It was an extraordinary experience to be part of that storytelling—four 15-minute segments for each show, without commercials. We didn’t use music—the ingredient that often softens, hardens, or otherwise can manipulate the story. We had to get the goods. We put people in prison, and we got innocent people out of prison. I did heartbreaking stories about the brain damage brought on by concussions, stories about children and adults who’d been victims of sexual abuse. Hazing. Heartache. Trans athletes. Bob Hewitt, the doubles great who’d spent decades sexually abusing his students. He was sent to prison. All of it.  

But I also got to report on the remarkable Hoyts. This father and son changed what millions of people around the world understood about people in wheelchairs, about what physically and mentally challenged people can really do. The world’s strongest man, a lovely fellow named Tom Stoltman from Scotland, is autistic. His autism, and the concentration and repetitive patterns that come with it—Stoltman calls this tunnel vision ‘a superpower’—help him to be the world’s strongest man.  

Chris Evert gave me four days to follow her journey through her life-threatening cancer. I travelled to Africa, Pakistan, England, France, New Zealand, Australia, and other countries for that show, working with the best sports journalists in the business, such as Bryant Gumbel, Frank Deford, Bernard Goldberg, Armen Keteyian, and Andrea Kremer. It was thrilling.  

Much like Arthur Ashe, you’ve been the conscience of tennis. You’ve spoken out with wisdom, candor, and courage about the burning controversies of the past 40 years, such as the age-eligibility rule, bad dads, such as Jim Pierce, Stefano Capriati, and Damir Dokic, equal prize money for men and women, on-court coaching, the service let, and the absurdity of player challenges. In Oct. 2021, you sat out the Laver Cup to protest the ATP’s and network TV’s “whitewashing of very serious allegations” of domestic abuse from the ex-partner of world No. 4 Alexander Zverev, though he vehemently denied them. What are the biggest moral issues facing tennis today?

Carillo — How much time have you got, Paul? I still don’t think the ATP has delivered a comprehensive explanation of what the ramifications of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse are—the consequences, suspensions, ejections, etc.

The players’ continuous and accelerated abuse of tennis officials. Has it ever been worse, especially on the men’s side? I don’t think so. It’s not just one or two guys. It’s a lot of them, and it can be chilling to see them so out of control. I would like to see strict penalties during matches, and fines, even suspensions to be much more rigorously enforced, and much more consistently given.

Betting on tennis. I just can’t abide it. Apart from how much match fixing goes on at the smaller events, betting contributes so much to player abuse, especially on social media.

Social media and stalking—that’s getting worse, too. As much as I understand social media as a publicity tool, as a means of personal expression and reflection, I just wish there were far less of it.

The stupid tennis calendar that became bloated with 12-day ATP-WTA 1000 events, leaving the ATP with an overly short six-week off-season and the WTA with only eight weeks to rest and recover from the grueling worldwide circuit.

What do you think about the normalization of pro tennis in Saudi Arabia?

Carillo — I agree completely with Chrissie and Martina on this curiously polarizing issue, and as much as Billie Jean always feels that change can only come if people engage with each other, I cannot abide that. The savage 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is reprehensible. Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 plane hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Sharia law includes the death penalty for homosexuals. I’m a journalist, a New Yorker, and gay. I take Saudi terrorism seriously. Is there no other place for the sport to find money other than blood money?

Is climate change the elephant in the room affecting sports?

Carillo — Definitely. Climate change is now the biggest threat to sports, especially outdoor, aerobic sports like tennis. We’ve seen the catastrophic effects of global warming around the world. Wildfires in Australia and California. Hurricanes in Florida and Texas. Floods in Spain. Air pollution in major cities in India and China. Typhoons, droughts, tornadoes, landslides, earthquakes, and heat waves. These extreme weather events get more devastating, deadly, and frequent every year. Athletes, coaches, sponsors, parents, and sports administrators should read an eye-opening book titled Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport. Learn how you can fight back to save the sports you love.

In a May 21, 1992, Tennis Week editorial, publisher Gene Scott chastised the ruling bodies of tennis for “the celebration of singles almost to the exclusion of doubles,” arguing “that if tennis is going to grow exponentially, we are going to have to be intelligent and give doubles its due.” Scott then listed 12 benefits of doubles. What do you think about the current status of men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles—particularly its prize money, TV and print coverage, court allocation, and scheduling?

Carillo — Now that so much more tennis can be watched on television, so much more doubles can be watched as well. The majors do a good job, and the USTA took a big gamble this year that their mixed doubles event—played over two days by big-name singles players—was going to go over well, and it did what they hoped. It certainly enlivened Fan Week.

For next year’s US Open Mixed, there will be a qualifying day as well. Was the actual doubles product worth the hype? It was fortuitous that two true doubles players, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, took the title and the huge cash prize.  

But in the non-majors, the doubles is still pretty much buried in the schedules, the television coverage, and in print media. For me, doubles is at its most exciting during Davis Cup and BJK Cup play—it often is the difference maker to a country’s success. I find women’s doubles to be more interesting than men’s doubles, where points often end in quick, rapid-fire rallies.

Who are your three favorite men and women players of all time? And what do you like, or even admire, most about each of them?

Carillo — Roger Federer, for the reasons I gave earlier.

Pete Sampras, for how he played, how he comported himself, for how much tennis meant to him.

John McEnroe. I know he’s a mixed bag. But he’s my mixed bag.

Billie Jean King, for how she competed, for her style of play, for all that she fought for.

Maria Bueno. She was the first person I ever saw play on TV. I was enthralled. So fluid and full of grace. That I got to know her, even got to play doubles with her, is a true honor. I think of her all the time.

Tied for third are four legends that created two of the greatest rivalries and the GOAT: Evert/Navratilova, Graf/Seles, and Serena.

Special Mention goes to Kim Clijsters. No one comes near her, man or woman, when it comes to being a truly good human being.

As you look back on your career, what was the most fun you ever had as a player and as a sports commentator?

Carillo — As a player, it was being at Wimbledon with a player credential around my neck. Walking around, knowing that this was my life and they were paying me for being here. The quiet thrill of that.

As a commentator, sitting in a television booth with a broadcaster credential around my neck. There is a remarkable tennis match in front of me, and I can’t quite believe this is my life and they’re paying me for being here. The quiet thrill of that.

You coined the phrase “Big Babe Tennis” when young superstars Monica Seles and Steffi Graf slugged it out during the early 1990s. That stylistic description fits the crème de la crème of women’s tennis now more than ever, with heavyweights Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, and Elena Rybakina banging big serves and heavy groundstrokes as they vie for supremacy. What are your thoughts about the evolution of women’s tennis and what the future portends?

Carillo — I think current women’s tennis will look like this for a long time. When I was growing up, watching the women play, it was almost all serve and volley, as it was with the men. Power is the coin of the realm now. Most women’s matches get decided on the baseline by big hitting and spinning, and a lot of the women have better return games than serve games. The first serve percentage and the quality of the second serve is what I look for at the start of almost all women's matches. Also, their footwork and foot speed. You must be so strong, fast, and fit to live on the court with the best women players now. The game is so much about physicality that the days of teen phenoms infiltrating tennis seem pretty much impossible, no?

Like the violent collision of two super-massive black holes in the cosmos, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have collided to create the most spectacular battles in the tennis universe. Unlike anything we’ve seen before—even the legendary Big Three—the new Big Two devour their other competitors before their must-see fireworks in Grand Slam finals. What do you find most striking and appealing about Alcaraz and Sinner and their riveting rivalry?

Carillo — Just about everything! How respectful they are of each other. How each makes the other want to be better, more complete, the very best version of themselves. How solid and stable the people around them are. It reminds me of Roger Federer’s choice in his team. How well they understand the court and its possibilities. How they know that the only way to stay in the rivalry is to rival the other’s ambitions and talents. How humble they are. How dedicated they are to bringing tennis to heights the sport has never before reached. How you watch them and wonder how any tennis player in the future can possibly build on this and get even better than Sinner and Alcaraz already are.