Mark “Scoop” Malinowski has written about tennis for Tennis Magazine, Tennis Week, Tennis Magazine Australia, Ace Magazine of Great Britain, Florida Tennis, Totally Tennis, Tennis View, www.ATPWorldTour.com, and CBS Sportsline.com. He has done Biofile interviews with Arthur Ashe, Don Budge, Pete Sampras, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Manuel Santana, Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, Jim Courier, Novak Djokovic, Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka, and hundreds of other WTA and ATP players.
“Marcelo Rios: The Man We Barely Knew” (CreateSpace October 2011) is his second book. His first book was about boxing, titled “Heavyweight Armageddon: The Tyson-Lewis Championship Battle.”
Through interviews with opponents, media, officials, fans, friends and others in the tennis industry, Malinowski paints a very unique portrait of former No. 1 Marcelo Rios. It’s an entertaining work, especially for tennis fans. So many of the quotes about Rios are priceless and prove what an enigma he was as a player and is as a person. “Scoop” answered a few questions about his book.
Karen Pestaina: What inspired you to put this book together?
Scoop Malinowski: Marcelo Rios was one of the most inspiring and talented players I ever saw play the sport. He had a stylish, colorful way of playing that many tennis figures admired and appreciated, people like Roger Federer, Mats Wilander, Luke Jensen, Brad Gilbert, among many others, respected Rios and the way he played, when at his best. Rios was also controversial because he was different and had a rebellious attitude. Rios should not be forgotten, he was an important player in tennis history. One worthy of some kind of book or tribute. Â
KP: What was the most difficult part?
SM: It’s not easy to do a book about a subject and you know the subject won’t cooperate. Rios, as you probably know Karen, was far from cooperative with the media. So the hardest part was figuring out how to go about constructing the book. I already had a good amount of content and information about Rios from other players from a Tennis Week magazine feature I did about Rios in 2005. Eventually I decided to form the book abstract and freeflowing, unpredictable and unusual – qualities which personified the subject himself. It’s definitely a different kind of read. But so far, the majority of readers of the book were happy with it. Many Rios fans contacted me saying they loved it. Hugo Armando, a former ATP player, who knew Rios from their days at Nick Bollettieri Academy, said it was one of the best tennis books he’s ever read. Â
KP: Collecting all of the quotes and interviews must have been a big task. How did you approach it?
SM: Rios was a fascinating character and I was curious to learn as much as I could, which made the process almost easy. The original Tennis Week article started out by accident, when Thomas Johansson gave me a great story about Rios, when I asked him a ‘Funny Memory’ while doing a Biofile with him. That story, which is included in the book, sparked me to ask other tennis people for memories and anecdotes about Rios. And it seemed everybody I spoke with had a great story or a strong opinion of Rios. So a few years later, in 2008, when I decided to develop the original article into a book, it was just a lot of fun to listen to tennis world people talk about Rios. Some of the stories blew me away, or made me laugh so hard I had to wipe my eyes. The plan was just to talk to as many players, media, photographers, fans, officials, etc. etc. as possible at the various pro tournaments and events I covered – Miami, Delray Beach, U.S. Open, Newport.  And collect as much info about Rios as possible.
KP: Who were the most difficult people to get to comment on Rios?
SM: Well, I didn’t even bother to talk to Rios. I tried and failed about ten times to do a simple Biofile Q&A with him during his career and he refused every time, so there’s no way he would cooperate with a book about him. Which was no problem, because I didn’t expect him to tell me anything anyway. I tried many times to get his former coach Larry Stefanki to talk but he refused. I tried to get Agassi and at first it seemed he would talk. Agassi’s assistant e-mailed me saying Andre would talk but only if Rios personally asked Andre to. Obviously, Team Agassi didn’t realize I was doing it without Rios’ permission. When they learned that, that door closed. I would say everyone else I spoke with for this book, were very very helpful and shared a tremendous amount of information which I am extremely grateful for. Michael Joyce, Jan Michael Gambill, Nick Bollettieri, Bob Brett, Gilad Bloom, Roger Federer, Bud Collins, Alberto Bersategui, Luke Jensen, Donald Dell, Mike Nakajima of Nike, Weller Evans of the ATP were all enormously helpful.
KP: Have you sent Rios a copy of this book? Has he read it yet?
SM: I didn’t send a copy to Rios. Though one of the journalists with a Chilean newspaper who I did an interview with about the book, said he would give Rios a copy. That’s all I can tell you. I would think Rios would like this book, some parts will make him laugh, and of course some parts will probably make him cringe a little [smile].
KP: What do you personally think about Rios and his career?
SM: At his best, it was like watching a magician. Like Luke Jensen said, Rios played tennis differently than anybody else ever did. He changed the game, he was ahead of his time, his time hasn’t even come yet. It was just a thrill to see him play his best tennis, like the two matches with Agassi in Miami, and the final of the Grand Slam Cup vs. Agassi in Germany. Even Roger Federer said, Rios was one of his favorite players to watch, he said this back in 1999, the first time I interviewed him. But when Rios didn’t feel like playing it was a big disappointment. Because you wondered, what happened? How could he play so poorly when just the other day he was amazing? Despite the inconsistency, he was a great player in his era. Nobody can ever take away the fact that he was #1 in the world. That’s an amazing achievement. Rios was the best player on the planet for six weeks in 1998.
KP: Are you working on any other books?
SM: Yes, I’m working on a book about Muhammad Ali. Sort of similar to the Rios book, it’s a collection of memories and anecdotes about Muhammad Ali from outside the public eye and behind the scenes. Things most people don’t know about Muhammad Ali. For example his daughter Laila told me, Ali would take her and her siblings to a fast food restaurant for hamburgers. And then fans would recognize him and before you knew it, hundreds of people would be there, around her dad. Ali would get so wrapped up in being around those fans and people that he would forget he was even there with his kids and then would have to drive back and pick them up. So I’ve collected a lot of memories like that, just need to get a couple years more of those kinds of stories and personal memories.
The book can be purchased at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Marcelo-Rios-Man-Barely-Knew/dp/1461162416
Malinowski also writes for Tennis Prose, and his own site the Biofile. Follow him on twitter at @scoopmalinowski.