Silly question, but if you won a tournament last year and you come back to it, what do you do, exactly?
Valentin Vacherot, from Monaco, the defending champion, beat Argentina’s Sebastian Baez 6-4, 7-6 in his opening match at the Shanghai Masters 1000. On centre court. So far, I’m following. Then he said in his press conference: “I tried not to think of it as a title defence.”
I wrote that in my notebook, on the 7:32 train, and I worked it through. Step one: he has the title. Step two: he is not defending it. Step three: so if somebody else wins it, he hasn’t lost it, since he wasn’t defending it. Step four: so he can be the defending champion forever without ever defending anything. I thought the system was brilliant. Then I reread it, and I have a doubt about step three.
He also said: “It would be too arrogant to say I’m only here to defend my title.” Only. The word matters. So he defends a bit, but not only. I tried to work out the percentage. My notebook doesn’t go that far.
What he does instead is be happy. He said the joy of being back in Shanghai outweighed everything else. He even said he didn’t really know whether he would get to play this first round on centre court. The defending champion, unsure he gets the main court. I’m told it’s tour politeness, fine, but what does that mean?
I asked Jean-Pol if he had ever defended a title.
Several times. With arrogance. That’s how you keep them, you know.
He couldn’t tell me which ones. I looked, I found nothing, and I stopped looking when he looked at me.
Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
