On The Line Goes One-On-One with Alex O'Brien Interviewed by Ed Toombs March 1998

    Alex O'Brien was the hottest player on tour in the summer of 1996. A feisty but popular redhead who was both a singles and doubles champion in the American university ranks at Stanford University, the man from Amarillo, Texas turned heads in August of that year, winning as a wild card entrant in New Haven, just before the US Open. He continued his strong singles play in 1997, reaching six quarterfinals and achieving a career-high ranking of 30 in July of that year. He was also selected to the US Davis Cup team for the first time in 1997.

    Since then he has struggled, and his singles ranking has dipped below 100. But he remains a strong force in doubles, as part of a successful doubles tandem with Canada's Sébastien Lareau in 1996-1997, and now with fellow countryman Jonathan Stark. O'Brien/Stark reached the finals of the Lipton Championships this year.

    OnTheLine met with O'Brien in March 1998 at the Lipton, and discussed his career, the Davis Cup and the state of men's tennis.
 
    It seems that professional tennis players have amazing memories: they never forget a match. I mention the first time I ever saw O'Brien play, a marathon three-setter at the 1994 Canadian Open against eccentric German Karsten Braasch. "I sure remember that one," recalls Alex. "That was a long, long match, I lost 7-6 in the third."

    Many were surprised when Alex split with doubles partner Sébastien Lareau at the end of 1997. The combination had reached two Australian Open finals and one World Doubles Championship final, and was viewed as one of the sport's top tandems. O'Brien reveals that he was very reluctant to break up the pair. "Honestly, Lareau and I were playing some great doubles. I really enjoyed playing with him. The reason we stopped playing was that the Davis Cup Captain for the US [Tom Gullickson] asked if Jon and I would try to play together. It was Gully's idea. I thought I'd try to do something for the country."

    Alex is still in touch with Lareau regularly, and is pleased to see the Canadian having a good year so far. "Lareau is great, he's even playing better now, and I'm happy he's doing so well in singles now. We're still good friends. I felt bad, because I really like him as a person. He's a super-talented player and a nice guy."

    Alex feels his partnership with Stark should be a good one, but the chemistry between them is taking a while to sort itself out. Stark is a very different personality, more extroverted than Lareau. "It's hard, you know. With Lareau, I was the leader on the court always. He knew his role and I knew my role. It's tough when you play with a new guy. Jon is a lot more assertive and likes to get involved in things. So it's a different kind of relationship on the court. We've had to have some talks and work through some things, but he's been very supportive and it's been fun playing with Jon."

    In view of the fact that Alex reluctantly split up a successful team in order to form a pair that could represent the USA in Davis Cup, he is more than a little disappointed that Gullickson chose Todd Martin and Richey Reneberg instead of O'Brien and Stark for the April tie against Russia. He's also puzzled as to why he wasn't selected. "I really don't know why. I guess, probably he was thinking that he maybe wanted some backup singles players, but both Jon and I can play singles as well. I don't know. He likes Todd Martin, he's gone a lot with him in the past. I see he said in the paper that Jon's record wasn't that good in the Davis Cup."

    Did Gullickson call O'Brien to explain? "No," says Alex. That doesn't seem very fair....

    O'Brien was on the 1997 Davis Cup team. He played in the April tie in Brazil, going 1-1 in singles (winning the dead rubber). He was supposed to participate in the final against Sweden, which the USA lost 5-0, but had to withdraw because of a foot injury. "I was really disappointed to have missed that final. I don't know if I would have changed the outcome of the match or anything, but Todd and I have played together and we played well before. That's the final of the Davis Cup, it's history! It's just sad that I hurt my foot at that time, because I was playing some really good doubles.

    "But I guess that's life, and you just try to gear up again and work hard, and good things will happen hopefully. That's just what Jon and I are trying to do. We've been working with our trainer, Kenny Matsuta, and he's been getting us moving better, and we're starting to play a lot better."

    O'Brien was ranked as high as #30 in July 1997, but since has struggled and has dropped out of the top 100. The foot injury didn't help, but Alex says it's been a "mental slump" more than anything. "I started thinking I was really good. And as soon as you think that, the guys will kick you around and send you back to reality pretty fast." Becoming a top 50 player suddenly put a figurative target on his forehead. "They start coming for you when you start playing better, and they get fired up to beat you. And if you're not out there every day.... It's a job. I got a little complacent, and I stopped doing a few things here and there, and that's all it takes. So I'm just trying to work my way back up."

    What is his plan to get back to where he was? "First, it's my mind. I have the shots, and I'm playing much better than I was in the past. But I have to get my mind really in gear. And then secondly, my physical side. I'm working really hard on that, trying to get in really good shape and moving quickly. And just getting back and competing, winning some matches and getting a little confidence going."

    Ironically, O'Brien is perhaps in the best shape of his career, and it's frustrating for him that the results are not coming. "Yeah, it's strange. I feel like I'm moving really well, feeling really strong, and I feel like I'm seeing the ball pretty well. It's just my mind is a little weak right now. I have to start believing a little more."

    Alex, who obviously gets a lot of enjoyment out of playing doubles, doesn't think that balancing his singles and doubles careers is posing a problem. "No, not really. It might get difficult if one ranking gets a lot lower than the other, but I think it's good. I think doubles helps you compete, and it's also fun. You get out there with your buddy, play a little tennis, and try to stir it up a little bit."

    O'Brien has known Pete Sampras for a while, and it's interesting to hear his comments on the struggles being experienced by Sampras. "Well, I honestly think with Pete, he's got a new girlfriend in LA, and he's starting to see a little more about the the other side of the world, about... just life, being a person and living a life. I think he's realizing that tennis maybe isn't the most important thing in the world. What's been his strength in the past is that he hasn't realized that. He's always been totally absorbed by tennis.

    "At the start of the year he made a few comments that you wouldn't have seen him make at the start of any other year. Like, 'If I don't end up number one this year, if I lose the number one ranking, it won't be that big of a deal.' When you hear him say something like that, you kind of say, 'What? Pete said that?'

    "And I also think, you know he's a much better athlete than the rest of the players on the tour, but I don't think he's working as hard lately. He's the Michael Jordan of tennis, and he's such a great athlete, but I think that, maybe, he's taking it easy a little bit."

    If the number one is to change hands, Alex is hoping that Patrick Rafter can become the leader of the pack. "I think he'd be a good guy to be heading up the tour. He's a great guy and has fun at what he does. He's fun to watch. He's good for tennis because he's a good-looking guy and the girls like him.

    "But I don't know, it's pretty interesting now! You've got Korda, and the guy is an unbelievable tennis player. He's just down in his head a little bit now, I think. It's as if the whole number one situation has become too much for him."
 

    Finally, O'Brien is one of many players who travel with a laptop computer and surf the net while on the road. "I go on the Internet all the time. I do most of my business through the Internet, and use e-mail a lot." I gave him our card, so if you're surfing by, Alex, hello and thanks for chatting with OnTheLine!
 
 
 

Want to react to this report? Click here to send us feedback.