There are few current players who have been at the top of their craft as long as 38-year old Australian Rennae Stubbs has been.  The six-time grand slam doubles champion (Four women’s, two mixed) has been ranked #1 in the world in doubles, and is still inside the top ten (currently #8).  With new partner Samantha Stosur, Stubbs made it all the way to the finals of women’s doubles at Wimbledon earlier this month, losing a close match to Venus and Serena Williams to finish runner-up.

Rennae is in Washington, DC this month for World Team Tennis, playing for the Washington Kastles after being traded from the Sacremento Capitals.  Rennae was the women’s MVP in World Team Tennis in 2008, and her stellar play has continued into this season, leading the Kastles into the playoffs for the first time.

I got the chance to sit down with Rennae a week ago today (the day after this) for a pretty extensive interview on a multitude of topics.  We covered a whole lot of topics, so I’m breaking the interview up into two parts to make it a little more digestible .  The first part, which covers World Team Tennis, the incident, and her teammates, is here below. The second part, which covers Australian tennis and behind the scenes conflicts and drama in women's doubles, will be up in a few days.

TDF: You seem to really thrive in the World Team Tennis format—what do you think it is about it that suits you and your game so much?

Rennae Stubbs: So many things, really.  You know, in team tennis, you have to be super aggressive, I think, ready to go right away.  It lends itself to my personality, ‘cause I’m always  on the ready.  I work hard, I practice hard, and I’m an aggressive player, so I think sometimes that can be overwhelming for some girls.  Early in a set, they like to sort of work their way into the match, whereas I’m ready to go with aggressive stuff right away. 

And, you know, I’m experienced, so I’m used to the format.  I know what to expect.  I’m still playing full time, which makes it easier for me.

TDF: This is your first year playing for Washington after being traded from Sacramento.  How did the whole trade work—did you have to approve it?

Rennae Stubbs: Well, Ilana Kloss from the head office called me and just let me know that it was probably going to happen if I was okay with it.  And I said "do I really have a choice?" And she said "not really" (laughs).  So that’s the answer in a nutshell. 

Having said that, I’m really kinda happy that I ended up on the east coast.  And I ended up in Washington—I’ve never been here before, so me coming here—it’s been great.  And [Washington Kastles owner] Mark Ein is probably the best team owner in the league.  He does it right here.  

I think Sacramento’s a great team as well.  I think [Sacramento Capitals owner] Lonnie Nielson over there does a great job.  But, in the end, I just wanted to play for a team that wants me, and they wanted me.

TDF: Just a couple questions about your teammates here—you and Leander Paes have had great success.  You are two big names still active in main tour doubles.  What has it been like playing with him here? Have you ever played with him before?

Rennae Stubbs: Yeah Leander and I played Wimbledon last year, actually.  We lost first round, but we lost in a really good match to Jonas Bjorkman and Alicia Molik.  It was basically like a men’s doubles match—everyone was holding serve, there was one break in the third, and that was only because Jonas hit one of the greatest reflexes I’ve ever seen in my life, and then a shank forehand over Leander’s head.  And we remember that (laughs).

But I think if we played more we would have a lot of success.  But, you know, he has a regular partner.  The bottom line is: we know each other really well, we know each other’s games.  He knows what to expect from me, vice versa.

And the best part about it is that we understand the game so well.  We don’t really need to play a lot together to play well together.

TDF: So you’re not planning on playing the US Open together?

Rennae Stubbs: No, he’s playing with Cara Black, no.  But, you know, Leander and I train with the same trainer in Orlando, so we’ve known each other a long time, and we’re good friends.

TDF: Is it normal to have a fixed mixed doubles partner? Sometimes it seems like mixed doubles pairings are more random. Do you have a fixed mixed doubles partner?

Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, no.  I played a few years with Todd Woodbridge, played a little bit with Jared Palmer—those were my two grand slams.  But no, I’ve sort of been switching around the last few years.  Just trying to find someone you really like to play with is important.  And also success is obviously important.  No, mixed is a little bit different.  Sometimes you do see a lot of teams that do stick together quite a bit, and then some that just flip around.  Some of the guys don’t want to play some times.  So that’s how it goes…

TDF: What’s it been like playing with a young, sort of up-and-coming but struggling player like Olga Puchkova? She reached seed territory for slams and has since fallen out of the top 100.  What do you think it will take for her to get back to where she was?

Rennae Stubbs: A lot of discipline, a lot of hard work, and major commitment to being a professional tennis player.

TDF: You think her commitment is lacking?

Rennae Stubbs:  Um, I think at times it’s lacking, and I think that she needs to make a major commitment if she really wants to be back inside the top forty in the world.  She has to make a commitment to believing in herself, and working hard.  There’s nobody in the top thirty in the world that doesn’t work their ass off.  And it’s not possible to be good anymore and not practice harder than you play your matches.  And so I think that’s a really big thing for her. 

And for anybody out there that’s trying to make it.  You have to work really hard.  I mean, this is not easy to do for a living.  There’s one percent in the whole world that do this.  If anybody’s out there that has talent, I tell them if you really want to make it, really want to make it, you have to work beyond what you expect to be good.

TDF: What’s it like working with Murphy Jensen? Is it energizing or is it exhausting?

Rennae Stubbs: I love working with Murphy because, you know, he’s a combination of passionate about winning, but also passionate about enjoying the game.  So he’s kind of like the perfect combination for team tennis.  He brings out that aspect of entertainment, he brings that aspect of tennis knowledge.  You know, he’s been in big matches himself, so he knows how it feels to choke, he knows how it feels to win that big point.  And Murphy’s  a friend of mine, has been for twenty years.  It’s been really fun to have him on the team, I’m really glad he’s our coach.

TDF: A question about what happened last night during the men’s doubles.  What’s your take on what happened there, how did you see things unfold?

Rennae Stubbs: You know, to be honest with you, I was probably the quietest person—there’s no question I was the quietest person on our team.  You know, as far as I’m concerned, in that situation it was sort of like a little bit of a misunderstanding.  Boys were being boys, guys were tagging each other.  I thought what Robert did with the serve was a little bit uncalled for.  It’s like if you’re going to go for the tag, go for it in a point.  I didn’t agree with that situation—at all.

And quite frankly I thought McEnroe going on the other side of the net was just unbelievably unprofessional.  And I thought he decided that he was, once again, thought he was bigger than the game, by doing something like that, because he feels like he can do that and get away with it!  And it’s not OK.

If you have a problem with your opponents going at each other, say what you have to say, but don’t go around and get in front of people’s faces.  That’s just not OK.

I mean again, I sat there and I watched the whole thing, and I was kind of disgusted by everything that was going on.

I thought out of everything, out of everything, I thought [New York Sporttimes Coach] Chuck Adams, the coach from the opposing team, was probably the worst. Of everybody.  Because he insulted every single member of our team—verbally, and he verbally assaulted—he verbally said things to Olga, called her some derogatory things.  And he got into my face, and all I was doing was telling him to chill out.  He went at every single member of our team.  He went onto the court and said something to the guys, he said something to Olga, he said something to me.  And as the opposing coach, that’s just not OK.

And in the end, the worst part about it was that I’m the one that got the point penalty that cost our guys the first point in the tiebreak.  And all I did was go up to the umpire, in a very controlled manner, and tell him that the opposing coach just called my teammate something not OK.  And that was after we had gotten the code of conduct warning.  And I just didn’t think that was OK. I thought that there was so much stuff going on on the court, that if you were going to have an accumulative warning/point system, then they should have had a point [penalized] already. 

And the fact that we’re the ones that got a warning for Olga just talking to Robert, and saying stuff to him, and I’m the one that just went up to basically clarify that their coach has called her something.  And I’m the one who got the point penalty that cost our team.  That was really upsetting to me.  I did nothing to that umpire.  I didn’t abuse him, I didn’t say any swear words, he told me to sit down and I just said "look, I’m just going to tell you that the coach from the opposing team said this one of my teammates," and he gave me the warning for that.

So, as far as I’m concerned, all the stuff that was happening was ridiculous.  It was a circus.  And the fact that we’re the ones that got a point penalty is a disgrace.

And that umpire has a lot—I thought it was a personal vendetta against me from that umpire.

TDF: You’ve had previous encounters with him?

Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, and you know, if you want to give me a warning, give McEnroe a warning for the stuff that he says on the side of the court.  Just because he’s who he is doesn’t mean he’s allowed to get away with everything.  And if that’s the case, then everybody gets to get away with everything. 

And I had an umpire on that court, a linesman on that court, tell me what he saw, and that the reason we got that point penalty was ridiculous.  When you’ve got a linesman telling me that the umpire was out of control, you’ve got a problem.

Stay tuned for part two of The Daily Forehand's interview with Rennae Stubbs, which will be posted on Tuesday.