Front Row Seat
8/21/2019 1:27:00 PM | General, Women's Tennis
The US Open Tennis Championships begin on August 26 and a former Rice tennis standout will be front and center in the action.
Sometimes the best career advice is simply to never turn down a chance to do something new.
Just ask former Rice women's tennis standout Blair Henley, who turned an opportunity to produce occasional articles on the sport while she supported her husband Tyler's quest to reach the major leagues in professional baseball into a career as a host and writer at her own sport's highest level.
In less than a week, Henley will be front and center at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York as a stadium host for the US Open Tennis Championship. Henley will be warming up the crowds, introducing the players prior to matches and then doing post-match interviews.
This will be her fifth year as part of tennis' final grand slam event of the season, but just part of a hectic schedule that keeps her on the road over 100 days, most recently at the Cincinnati Masters where she found herself interviewing Roger Federer.
A quick search on the internet will find numerous articles she's authored for TENNIS magazine, Tennis.com, the ATP World Tour, WTA Tennis and numerous other sites. Her work has also been linked by Sports Illustrated, Buzzfeed, Grantland and The Daily Beast and others.
Not exactly the career she might have imagined after graduating from Rice in 2006 as Blair DiSesa.
In her senior season, she capped her collegiate career by leading the Owls to their first conference title in school history in 2006 (left) while earning Conference USA Player of the Year and ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American honors.
She finished her career with a 92-59 singles record, which ranks ninth in school history and she became the first tennis player to receive the Joyce Pounds Hardy Award, which is presented annually to Rice's most outstanding female student-athlete.
"I didn't have a clear path following graduation. I was an Econ/Management double major, but I always had an interest in journalism and broadcasting."
After marrying Rice baseball standout Tyler Henley, she found herself on a journey through the smaller towns of minor league baseball as Tyler attempted to climb through the ranks of the St. Louis Cardinals farm system.
An unpredictable mailing address that can vary both by the time of year and the roster moves by the major league organization made a typical job unfeasible. Henley jumped at the offer to write for a tennis website during a summer of minor league baseball as a chance to dabble in something that had interested her from an early age.
"My mom has a picture of me pretending to interview my grandfather at around age 11. Even as a kid, I liked the idea of having a microphone in my hand."
Her first taste of living out her childhood interest left her yearning to improve her skills.
"I continued freelance writing on a relatively small scale and took classes online during our three years of traveling for baseball. When we moved back to Houston so (Tyler) could finish his degree at Rice, I got a job at another tennis news website, where I had the chance to cover all four majors as a writer. They also had a significant YouTube following, and that's where I got my feet wet in front of the camera.
"I had zero on-camera experience and still cringe thinking back to when I first gave it a go for our tennis news show on YouTube. Though I can pretty confidently say I've come a long way in that department, I'm always trying to fine tune my style by studying people who I think do a great job," she added.
The venture into video coincided with the explosion of multimedia offerings on social media and Henley was perfectly positioned to take advantage of the abundant opportunities.
"As the YouTube show and some tennis instruction videos I put out gained traction, I realized how much I loved hosting and interviewing. After my first US Open as an emcee, I knew I wanted to do more of it. As a freelancer, you send a lot of emails, make a lot of calls and get a lot of 'no's,' but four years later, I feel like I'm involved with a really great variety of tennis events."
No event on the American tennis calendar can top the US Open, which is the final of the traditional four mega events (Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon) that even those with only a passing interest in the sport can recognize.
It's now become a regular stop for Henley.
"In 2015, a friend in the business recommended me for an open emcee position. Stadium hosting is much different than reading off a prompter in a studio, but the executive producer hired me sight unseen. This year I'll be working my fifth US Open as a host on Grandstand, and I am forever indebted to those two people who believed I could do the job. Once you have the US Open on your resume, it definitely makes the other jobs a bit easier to come by."
Henley's background of both playing and coaching the sport gives her a base for her interviews, but she is also careful to rely on her background alone.
"Playing tennis and coaching at a relatively high level have been invaluable in interviewing the best players in the world. I think they know right away if you're completely clueless. On the flip side, you can build rapport and trust if you come with thoughtful, respectful questions on a regular basis.
"I usually ponder what I want to know about a player's personality or how they handle certain on-court situations and try to create questions that might yield that info. Not every interview is a home run, but I hope my interaction with a player in a post-match interview may give a fan a memorable moment or a reason to follow that player in the future. For instance, when Denis Shapovalov rapped during our post-match interview in Indian Wells this year, I have no doubt he left with a bunch of new die-hard fans. It's something the people who saw it live will never forget."
While she might not dare ask all of them to rap, her list of recent interviews is impressive.
"My sit downs with Roger Federer in Cincinnati are certainly the interviews I get the most questions about. And, yes, he is as pleasant and engaging as everyone says he is. Beyond that, he's also a great interview. He's one of a handful of athletes who can take just about any question and come up with something insightful to say,
"Speaking to Li Na before her Hall of Fame induction and interviewing Billie Jean King at last year's WTA Finals in Singapore have also been highlights for me. I also had the chance to spend some time with Rod Laver through my involvement with the Laver Cup last year. I took a clinic with him probably 20 years ago and he was so delighted by that fact that he insisted we take a photo together.
"Getting to know people who have changed the face of the game is something I don't take for granted," she added.
Henley has seen her career explode thanks in part to the platforms available on social media and has branched out beyond the camera to manage the content creation for a number of tournaments and has seen its impact.
"No matter what job I get, there is added value in the fact that I have done social media work for some significant accounts. Though I think just about every tournament understands the value of social media and hires accordingly, I would love to see more players hire specialists to help them behind the scenes. A solid social media presence equals real dollars, and there are people that can take the guesswork out of that for athletes."
That Henley could find a career in a sport she grew up playing is both comforting and humbling. At each stop on her tour of events, she is constantly mindful of the help that others offered to her and is always ready to do the same.
"The professional tennis world is small, and as a result I've had the chance to get to know so many incredible people. I could literally fill this story with the names of those who have given me opportunities and advice. I'm to the point where people have started to ask me for advice and, in honor of all the people who went out of their way for me, I always do my best to pay it forward.
"Given that I had no formal training, I do feel like things have happened relatively quickly. That said, I'm competitive, so I'm always looking for the next step. I have to remind myself to be thankful for the opportunities that God has given me today. I try not to let my competitiveness rob me of my contentment."
Just ask former Rice women's tennis standout Blair Henley, who turned an opportunity to produce occasional articles on the sport while she supported her husband Tyler's quest to reach the major leagues in professional baseball into a career as a host and writer at her own sport's highest level.
In less than a week, Henley will be front and center at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York as a stadium host for the US Open Tennis Championship. Henley will be warming up the crowds, introducing the players prior to matches and then doing post-match interviews.
This will be her fifth year as part of tennis' final grand slam event of the season, but just part of a hectic schedule that keeps her on the road over 100 days, most recently at the Cincinnati Masters where she found herself interviewing Roger Federer.
A quick search on the internet will find numerous articles she's authored for TENNIS magazine, Tennis.com, the ATP World Tour, WTA Tennis and numerous other sites. Her work has also been linked by Sports Illustrated, Buzzfeed, Grantland and The Daily Beast and others.
Not exactly the career she might have imagined after graduating from Rice in 2006 as Blair DiSesa.
In her senior season, she capped her collegiate career by leading the Owls to their first conference title in school history in 2006 (left) while earning Conference USA Player of the Year and ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American honors.
She finished her career with a 92-59 singles record, which ranks ninth in school history and she became the first tennis player to receive the Joyce Pounds Hardy Award, which is presented annually to Rice's most outstanding female student-athlete.
"I didn't have a clear path following graduation. I was an Econ/Management double major, but I always had an interest in journalism and broadcasting."
After marrying Rice baseball standout Tyler Henley, she found herself on a journey through the smaller towns of minor league baseball as Tyler attempted to climb through the ranks of the St. Louis Cardinals farm system.
An unpredictable mailing address that can vary both by the time of year and the roster moves by the major league organization made a typical job unfeasible. Henley jumped at the offer to write for a tennis website during a summer of minor league baseball as a chance to dabble in something that had interested her from an early age.
"My mom has a picture of me pretending to interview my grandfather at around age 11. Even as a kid, I liked the idea of having a microphone in my hand."
Her first taste of living out her childhood interest left her yearning to improve her skills.
"I continued freelance writing on a relatively small scale and took classes online during our three years of traveling for baseball. When we moved back to Houston so (Tyler) could finish his degree at Rice, I got a job at another tennis news website, where I had the chance to cover all four majors as a writer. They also had a significant YouTube following, and that's where I got my feet wet in front of the camera.
"I had zero on-camera experience and still cringe thinking back to when I first gave it a go for our tennis news show on YouTube. Though I can pretty confidently say I've come a long way in that department, I'm always trying to fine tune my style by studying people who I think do a great job," she added.
The venture into video coincided with the explosion of multimedia offerings on social media and Henley was perfectly positioned to take advantage of the abundant opportunities.
"As the YouTube show and some tennis instruction videos I put out gained traction, I realized how much I loved hosting and interviewing. After my first US Open as an emcee, I knew I wanted to do more of it. As a freelancer, you send a lot of emails, make a lot of calls and get a lot of 'no's,' but four years later, I feel like I'm involved with a really great variety of tennis events."
No event on the American tennis calendar can top the US Open, which is the final of the traditional four mega events (Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon) that even those with only a passing interest in the sport can recognize.
It's now become a regular stop for Henley.
"In 2015, a friend in the business recommended me for an open emcee position. Stadium hosting is much different than reading off a prompter in a studio, but the executive producer hired me sight unseen. This year I'll be working my fifth US Open as a host on Grandstand, and I am forever indebted to those two people who believed I could do the job. Once you have the US Open on your resume, it definitely makes the other jobs a bit easier to come by."
Henley's background of both playing and coaching the sport gives her a base for her interviews, but she is also careful to rely on her background alone.
"Playing tennis and coaching at a relatively high level have been invaluable in interviewing the best players in the world. I think they know right away if you're completely clueless. On the flip side, you can build rapport and trust if you come with thoughtful, respectful questions on a regular basis.
"I usually ponder what I want to know about a player's personality or how they handle certain on-court situations and try to create questions that might yield that info. Not every interview is a home run, but I hope my interaction with a player in a post-match interview may give a fan a memorable moment or a reason to follow that player in the future. For instance, when Denis Shapovalov rapped during our post-match interview in Indian Wells this year, I have no doubt he left with a bunch of new die-hard fans. It's something the people who saw it live will never forget."
While she might not dare ask all of them to rap, her list of recent interviews is impressive.
"My sit downs with Roger Federer in Cincinnati are certainly the interviews I get the most questions about. And, yes, he is as pleasant and engaging as everyone says he is. Beyond that, he's also a great interview. He's one of a handful of athletes who can take just about any question and come up with something insightful to say,
"Speaking to Li Na before her Hall of Fame induction and interviewing Billie Jean King at last year's WTA Finals in Singapore have also been highlights for me. I also had the chance to spend some time with Rod Laver through my involvement with the Laver Cup last year. I took a clinic with him probably 20 years ago and he was so delighted by that fact that he insisted we take a photo together.
"Getting to know people who have changed the face of the game is something I don't take for granted," she added.
Henley has seen her career explode thanks in part to the platforms available on social media and has branched out beyond the camera to manage the content creation for a number of tournaments and has seen its impact.
"No matter what job I get, there is added value in the fact that I have done social media work for some significant accounts. Though I think just about every tournament understands the value of social media and hires accordingly, I would love to see more players hire specialists to help them behind the scenes. A solid social media presence equals real dollars, and there are people that can take the guesswork out of that for athletes."
That Henley could find a career in a sport she grew up playing is both comforting and humbling. At each stop on her tour of events, she is constantly mindful of the help that others offered to her and is always ready to do the same.
"The professional tennis world is small, and as a result I've had the chance to get to know so many incredible people. I could literally fill this story with the names of those who have given me opportunities and advice. I'm to the point where people have started to ask me for advice and, in honor of all the people who went out of their way for me, I always do my best to pay it forward.
"Given that I had no formal training, I do feel like things have happened relatively quickly. That said, I'm competitive, so I'm always looking for the next step. I have to remind myself to be thankful for the opportunities that God has given me today. I try not to let my competitiveness rob me of my contentment."
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