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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Chris Cotter

Aired September 07, 2002 - 12:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: At the U.S. Open in New York, there's high drama unfolding at the men's semifinals at this hour. Pete Sampras is facing a man from the Netherlands -- and I'm not even going to try to pronounce his name -- but Sampras has won the Open four times. The other semifinal features the defending champ Lleyton Hewitt -- I can say that -- and Andre Agassi.
And on the women's side, once again it's an all-Williams final, with Venus and Serena battling it out tonight. With me now to talk more about the women and the men, of course, who are competing right now, Chris Cotter. He's the host of Sports Talk 790's "The Zone," right here in Atlanta. Good to see you again.

CHRIS COTTER, SPORTS TALK 790 THE ZONE: Sjeng Schalken, I would guess.

WHITFIELD: Is that it?

COTTER: I know it's Schalken, but the first name, let's just -- we'll pass.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right. I'm impressed. I just the guy from the Netherlands.

COTTER: With so many other big names to talk about...

WHITFIELD: It will really be important if he makes it to the final, right?

COTTER: Right. Why even -- why talk about him when you have got Sampras and Agassi right now that could potentially meet in the finals, and that's really exciting, because you know, people thought Sampras was done. You know, and Agassi as well -- if Agassi wins, he's the oldest winner of the U.S. Open in over 30 years. So it's a good story line and the fact that men's tennis has been hurting for so long, to get names and to get the popularity with the folks, and now you here you have the two most prominent American players since McEnroe and Connors potentially playing in the American championship here at the U.S. Open.

WHITFIELD: And it would be nice, too, because even Pete Sampras we're looking at right now -- he has said, you know what, it's the naysayers, all the people who said that I was all washed up and too old to continue to play that have really galvanized me to get to this point. So he really wants it bad, to at least prove a point that he's still got game. COTTER: You're right. And Andy Roddick, who he beat to get into this semifinals, is the next American hope, the youngster that everyone's looking forward to seeing and hearing on the tour said, I didn't think Sampras was all washed up. He's been my hero. I've seen this guy since I was a little kid. I thought he still had game, and he obviously still has. He had a great quarterfinal match.

WHITFIELD: And let's talk about the women. Even now, responding to the critics who are saying, you know what, this all women's final is lackluster. You know, folks -- a lot of fans are saying, they are bored with it. But here Venus Williams just yesterday came out and said, you know what, this is not a question that I'm hearing having been asked before, why should these two girls be playing up against one another. They say, you know, Venus and Serena are saying they really are going for the gusto, and they are trying to win, each of them, individually.

COTTER: Yeah, and it's like the Tiger Woods syndrome too. Tiger Woods, everyone loves to see Tiger Woods win. You want to tune in to see him, but then after he wins everything, you sort of say to yourself, you know what, I would like to see an underdog come in and topple him. I'd love to see that happen. And the Williams sisters now they kind of have got that going here. The last three Grand Slam finals, they've played against each other, four of the last five. The last three U.S. Opens have been won by either Venus or Serena. So they are owning women's tennis.

It's still very, very exciting, but I think now they are getting into a point where people start to look for the underdog, and it's just a cycle that happens...

WHITFIELD: And amazingly, it was just four years ago that these two girls were considered the underdog.

COTTER: Four years ago...

WHITFIELD: They were the sympathetic favorite.

COTTER: Fredricka, four years ago, a woman serving 122 miles an hour, it was like telling somebody in 1892 that we were going to send someone to the moon. It was that foreign. And Serena -- or Venus, rather, 122-mile-an-hour serve in her match yesterday. That's pretty remarkable.

WHITFIELD: That's pretty phenomenal. Now, Billie Jean King has weighed in on this. And she said, you know what, if I were an up-and- coming player right now, I would be motivated by seeing these two girls and I would want to raise my game to make it powerful tennis again. So to hear her say that is really...

COTTER: No, that's a very good point, because there are -- right now, there isn't an up-and-commer in the women's game that you can look to and you cay say, this is the heir apparent, this is somebody who is going to topple these two women, because it looks like -- they are so young, they're in their early 20's, they could do this for the next 10 years. I mean, they could be this dominant. Somebody has to come along.

And we say it in the golf game too, somebody has to come along to challenge Tiger. This is a similar situation. Somebody has to come along, because the women who are good enough to compete with them, the Davenports of the world, they're getting up there in age and they're starting to suffer from injuries as well, so there isn't anybody right there on the horizon that looks like can beat them.

WHITFIELD: Well, you know, Amelie Mauresmo yesterday said, well, you know what, they are not going to be winning forever. So maybe she is in the wings.

COTTER: They won't be, but boy, she's going to have -- she might be there, in semifinals and maybe a final here and there, but boy, when they are ranked one and two and they are in different brackets and on the collision course for the finals, I just don't see anybody right now, on a consistent basis -- maybe once every couple of years being able to beat them, but not right now.

WHITFIELD: And there was a day when people looked forward to seeing the rivalry between Martina and Chris Evert. They didn't mind seeing them often in the finals, so it's an interesting comparison being made.

COTTER: And I think that was -- people thought there was real animosity there between those two. And I think people think, well, they are sisters, maybe there isn't that much animosity between the two of them. But I know -- and you and I both know, it's a fact, they want to go out there and beat each other every time they play each other.

WHITFIELD: Sure, going for the gold, going for the record. All right, Chris Cotter, thank you very much. Good to see you again.

COTTER: Good seeing you.

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