Tennis transforms the otherwise ordinary lives of players at Wimbledon, but there are still some who have an alternative, equally extraordinary talent. Here are six alternatively talented players:
Vince Spadea
The American is a man who mixes, like an unorthodox club MC, his tennis career with his equally promising talent as a rap artist. In fact, he might be a better rapper; he holds the record for the most consecutive first-round exits and, true to form, the American ranked No. 66 in the world was beaten in the first round on Tuesday by Ivan Ljubicic. He remained at Wimbledon on Friday, where he rapped about his defeat to all who would listen. The Times asked “Vindawg” whether he was able to make up his material as he went along. He replied: “When I make it up on the hoof, I sound like a goof, people hit the roof, but when I write, that’s when it sounds tight, I might be white but I can always recite, I used to feel every night till the morning light.”
Maria Sharapova
Her beauty has already earned the Russian a highly profitable sideline as a model, but Sharapova has another talent that she prefers to keep well hidden. She is, apparently, a proficient stamp collector. Challenged on the subject last year, she blushed and said: “My agent said not to talk about that.”
The Bryan Brothers
Apart from possessing tennis doubles brilliance and an incredible ability to live in each others’ back pockets, the Bryan brothers have reasonable abilities as musicians and jam between games. “Bob plays the keyboard and I play the drums and the guitar,” Mike Bryan said. They play a mixture of indie, pop and rock, their own compositions as well as the work of Snow Patrol and U2.
Mardy Fish
Like an allround sportsman of a bygone age, Fish appears able to excel at almost any game he tries. Joining the New York Mets, the baseball franchise, for batting practice during the 2004 US Open, Fish hit a 370-fo ot home run over the right-field wall of the stadium. However, his real alternative talent lies in golf, which he apparently plays off scratch.
Venus Williams
Both the Williams sisters are polymaths, able to turn their hands to acting and music as much as tennis rackets, but it is the elder sister who possesses the more unlikely set of skills. When not finding acute angles on the tennis court, Venus spends time considering the angles, light, and interior design of hotels and office blocks.
She has a certificate in interior decorating, is studying for a bachelors degree in interior design, and has founded a company, V Starr Interiors, for companies requiring interior design solutions from a three-time Wimbledon champion. After Venus had beaten Hana Sromova in their second-round tie on Thursday, she spoke of her other profession. “
We do all kinds of things in residential design, commercial. Right now we’re working on a hotel in Turks and Caicos.” The Times asked how she juggled the two: “I don’t like down-time,” she said. “I’m a busy body.”
Dmitry Tursunov
The Russian No. 23 seed lists his interests as “knitting and collecting walnut shells”, but he is better known on the ATP Tour for another talent: he is fêted as a writer. His rise to literary prominence began last year when he started writing an entertaining blog about life on the tour.
Despite his lowly rank, his blog is said to be a better read than Roger Federer’s and he has been recruited by the ATP as its “official blogger”.
He is dismissive of his own abilities with a keyboard. “Because I can do something other than swing a racket, people get overexcited,” he said. He does, however, hope to write a book when he retires.
