INDIAN WELLS, California—A new craze has hit the tennis social scene—-and it has players, coaches, fans and media buzzing at Indian Wells.
Twitter, the social media service that answers the simple question of “what are you doing” in just 140 characters, has become enormously popular over the past several months. Top players including Venus and Serena Williams have embraced it, and for the lower ranked players who normally do not receive as much media attention, it has given fans an opportunity to get to know them better.
While it has been widely accepted by fans as a favorable innovation, Twitter has received a mixed reception from the mainstream tennis press. Journalists have tentatively stepped into the waters of social media, seemingly uncertain how to navigate both traditional reporting and the confines of condensing a story into a character count approximately the size of a byline. Still, some have made the transition smoothly, such as TennisReporters.net’s Matthew Cronin, who routinely breaks news on Twitter at @TennisReporters.
The key to a successful Twitter profile relies heavily on personal interaction, a quality that tennis’ biggest personality has aced to her advantage. Serena Williams regularly holds Twitter “sessions” where she poses a question to her over 1.6 million followers and then takes time to reply to many personally. Serena’s success has quite possibly inspired other players to regularly interact with their fans, such as Svetlana Kuznetsova (a Twitter newcomer) and Victoria Azarenka.
Although she finds it hard occasionally to have time for Twitter, Caroline Wozniacki enjoys using the new technology.
“I like communicating with my fans and with people following me. I think it’s a great way to get an insight from like not just on the court, but also how it is behind the scenes,” Wozniacki said on Tuesday.
“I think it’s nice for the fans, and they are following and coming with comments. I think that’s the great way to do it.”
Tennis players are not the only ones noticing the potential of tennis Twitter interaction. Houston-based retailer Tennis Express, one of the leading tennis equipment suppliers in the nation, has made twittering a daily part of its business plan. From the news about sales and contests to tennis personalities making in-store appearances, @TennisExpress keeps fans informed.
One predicament has arisen with the advent of Twitter. Fans have suddenly found their favorite stars accessible—and often unfiltered. While relevant tweets are informative, updates from players can sometimes border on the mundane and pointless.
Bobby Chintapalli, a tennis fan and writer who says that she embraced tweeting at @bobbychin about tennis (women’s mainly) to avoid losing friends by talking about it so much, believes that Twitter has its pros and cons.
“For those of us in the tennis community – ardent fans, casual followers, players, tour insiders and media folks – Twitter’s come to be a sort of portal for all things tennis,” Chintapalli said Wednesday. “That could mean serious news, snark, just plain rubbish or something in between.”
But Chintapalli adds that regardless of whether it is noteworthy or not, the news has instant popularity.
“Of course it’s also become news itself, with players and others tweeting their thoughts on serious stuff or perhaps making silly comments that make headlines,” Chintapalli continued.
“Usually it’s nice to hear directly from players, but sometimes, for their sake and ours, we wish they had an internal filter or at least an external one (i.e., a PR rep doing the typing). Whether we’re listening in or weighing in though, many of us are increasingly starting here or eventually going here. That’s good and bad. Good in that we can convey and consume information quickly. Bad in that we can convey and consume nonsense quickly too.”
It may not be flawless, but one thing is certain—whether it is steakhouse recommendations from @VenusESWilliams or match statistics from the BNP Paribas Open’s official @BNPParibas, Twitter and tennis have equaled a perfect match for fans.
Follow @OnTheBaseline for live Twitter updates from the 2010 BNP Paribas Open at www.twitter.com/onthebaseline.
On the Baseline’s live coverage of the 2010 BNP Paribas Open is brought to you by Grand Slam Tennis Tours. Become a fan of Grand Slam Tennis Tours on Facebook to enter to win a trip to the US Open!
It was pretty surreal to read the transcript of Caro’s fourth-round Indian Wells press-conference and see that she was asked when she was going to update her Facebook and Twitter pages! That’s the type of question that is usually asked by fans, not media.
In ten years’ time, Twitter and Facebook will be populated only by diehards talking to themselves, as everyone else will have moved onto the next model of social networking.
Except, of course, for diehards such as myself who eschew social networking in favour of good old traditional Internet fora.
I for one would not want to see players PR reps doing the twittering. The beauty of Twitter (to me) is that followers get a rare look into the players when they are just being themselves and tooling around on the computer. I’d hate to see that spontaneity and intimacay be replaced by something more rigid and filtered.