In 2021, Tennis Acumen interviewed American Evan King at the Champaign Challenger tournament. Here is a part of that conversation:
Tennis Acumen: Well, that draws us right into favorite cities on the tour.
Evan King: I think Melbourne. I love Australia. Australia is awesome. So, Melbourne's good because there's no language barrier. Travel is a lot easier. I liked Taiwan as well. I had a really good experience in Taiwan. I thought the food was great. A lot of people came out, and they ran a really good event.
Tennis Acumen: Do you ever get time to really go and sightsee?
Evan King: It all depends on the result of the tournament. That would be an advantage of doing poorly in a tournament. I have more time off to actually see a place. But on a week where I'm winning matches, it's more so hotel and tennis courts. Maybe a couple of meals out, but then you don't actually get to sightsee. So, one of my bigger regrets was I spent two weeks in India in 2017. I didn't get to see anything and I've never been back. I've been to India, but I didn't experience India, I didn't actually get to travel around because the schedules just didn't allow for it. We go to some pretty cool places and very interesting places. Sometimes you do see them, sometimes you don't. If you ask five different players about travel, some people have more of a focus on: “I want to see the world.” Others have more of a focus on tennis, tennis, tennis, which both work, but different people have different philosophies on it.
Tennis Acumen: I asked Tennys Sandgren the same question. he said Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is his ‘go to’ place. He finds that just the most stunning place. What would your ‘go to’ place be?
Evan King: Hmm, that's interesting. I don't know if I have an immediate one. I think it's more about people. If I'm traveling with people that I really get along with, regardless of where it is, I'll have a good time, be at peace and enjoy myself. It is more that than specific places.
Tennis Acumen: OK, that’s more a social point of view. And speaking of airports and hotels and cars, I worked as a rock drummer for a long time. You know, there are a lot of cities I never really saw. I can't say: “I've been there.” We just went to this hall and played four sets. Now the other thing about rock and roll, and this is where people get in trouble. Too much time on your hands. How do you deal with that? I mean, you're not going to get into excess or go off the deep end. But how do you handle the down time and the sheer boredom that can happen to you?
Evan King: You need another passion to fill your days. I'm really randomly into battle rap. There's something about guys creatively messing around with the English language that I really love. So, for me right now, I watch a ton of that. Tennis players, whether it's in juniors or college or pros, we're good at time management, filling time. A lot of it's stretching. I had my match yesterday. Yeah, I probably only played for two hours yesterday, an hour to warm up, so that leaves another 12 hours of being awake. A lot of stretching, lifting weights. Watch a little bit of film. That's something that I'm trying to do more of: just scouting opponents, scouting myself, trying to figure out ways I can be better and work on that. I know some people are taking classes online, I don't have a great answer for you on that for me because I'm not doing much productive outside of this.
Tennis Acumen: Well, if you're working on your game, that's productive and if you have discipline behind you in that, it fills up the time.
Evan King: it's just a lot of recovery, whether it's physical or mental, especially now. At the end of the year, we've all been playing since January. Eleven months in, everything's a little bit achy. Mentally, you're a little bit fried. It's more so staying healthy, staying fresh as possible at this point in time, and for me, it's watching battle rap, that's just what I am into.
More of this exclusive interview is available at Tennis Acumen. Go to the interviews category, shown on the upper right hand side of the screen.
Tags: @EvanKingChicago
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