KEY POINTS:
Tennis is as much gladiator contest as sport. It is in a small space. Spectators are close. There are clear rules, with human error ready to upset everything on any single line call. Games can be tense and explosive.
But big tennis is also big business, and Auckland is one of the pick-up points for the millions of dollars available. So a silky corporate sense of order reigns.
This includes players learning from politicians that television can do without substance in exchange for a crisp soundbite and a close-up.
For viewers it means a steady line in "I am looking forward to this match", and "I am very pleased with the way I played".
There is always a nod to what might be a sobbing, crushed, broken and enraged opponent smashing holes in the dressing room wall, with "She played a very good match, but it went a little bit better for me today".
Interviewers can push for more. They can forget it. Glares are steel hardened and silences final.
The commentary team picks up the preferred style. Keith Quinn, Andrew Saville, Brenda Perry and Niki Tippins keep well short of savage. During a local's struggle against one of the Russians the team segued away from the score line to discuss the depth of women's tennis in Russia, its players with names ending in "eva", "ova" or "skya" and Florida accents. There was nothing close to wondering how it feels to have the dream of a grand moment, toppling the tournament favourite, chopped into small pieces and fried for feeding to household pets.
Everything becomes so tactful it is hard not to pine for some of the drama that surely lurks under the highly varnished exterior. We know we are unlikely to see a coach being attacked by his/her losing charge, or the police following up damage to the dressing rooms.
But a glimpse of the stress on people who compete bitterly and who share the same spaces week in and week out would be illuminating.
Fortunately, once out of the pre- and post-match interview groove, things can be more candid.
One player told an interviewer she liked the players' lounge, its good chairs and the supply of magazines, but felt the food needed work. While this might not register in rugby league it was a revelation here.
Geoff Bryan does the courtside chats and runs into the wall of media awareness. The professionals will talk but only doing positive and bland. Viewers will grow old waiting for a fellow player to be outed for enjoying cheap sherry and riding horses through hotel foyers at midnight.
Newcomers are even harder going. They are so careful about a career-crippling mistake they can be monosyllabic. Either way Bryan must labour to keep the flow going, never mind hooking anything exciting.
