Read Ron Cioffi’s story on the the 20-year history of TennisReporters.net.
I was among the journalists who began writing about tennis early in the 1990s. Also, we also began appearing on radio and on TV at the majors. We were going to the Grand Slams and the other important tournaments, especially in the United States. There were amazing events and we made some fantastic friends, too.
In 2000, some of us started talking about whether we could have a new magazine, one where we could write whatever we wanted to, without the bosses saying, “No, you cannot. We don’t like being controversial.”
We wanted to have our own voices. We might be scared or afraid. Really, in order to be happy, we decided to start TennisReporters.net, win or lose. It was time to go for it. So, in the new century, we decided to go online with our partner, Ron Cioffi, building our website.
Sandra Harwitt, who is still on the tennis beat, joined me as our primary writers. It wasn’t easy at all, when we started, because it was new, and we messed up a lot. Ron was home outside of Atlanta, posting stories on a nearly daily basis, especially during the Slams.
But overall, it was pretty good. It wasn’t terrific yet, but the journalists, the players, the coaches, the owners, and the fans began to come over and read our website. Gradually, we had thousands of people, looking at Tennisreporters.net. We were happy. We love tennis, and so do you, too.
Still, the site has never made much money so we all kept our jobs. Sandy (who dropped out a year later) and I continued to write for many other outlets that were the foundation of our income.
Now, in 2020, it has now been 20 years. We are still going on, with me and Ron. I live in California and Ron lives outside Atlanta. But, we still talk a decent amount. We are friends, believe it or not.
Hopefully, in August, when the players return to play on court with the real events — due to coronavirus, which shut down every event in early March — then we will write about real competitive matches. We will all be thrilled. And all of the fans will also be incredibly excited.
TennisReporters.net continues. We have survived 20 years and a pandemic.
Some more happy days will come.