Patricia Mayr contemplates what hell she will raise next. Photo by Ben Rothenberg, via The Daily Forehand's Picasa

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BRONX--While Hurricane Bill steered east of New York City, the powerful gusts of  Patricia Mayr are swirling around the boroughs for a couple weeks.

Mayr, a 22-year old from Austria currently ranked #82 was one of the players in the Bronx Open draw that I was most excited to see.  I had never seen her play, but the accounts of the havoc she wrought in Budapest had me excited to see just how nuts she would be.

Her first round match against Paraguay's Rossana de los Rios was not nearly as packed as I would have hoped.  Clearly the word had not yet reached New York tennis fans as to just how crazy this unassuming Austrian blonde could be.  At 34, de los Rios is easily one of the oldest singles players on the tour, and I was curious to see how a player with her experience would grapple with Mayr's sophomoric tendencies.

The match started out relatively calmly, with Mayr holding easily.  Then de los Rios held easily to level the first set at 1-1.  Furious at herself for even dropping one game, Mayr cocked her racquet back as though she was going to smash it into the light pole, but resisted. 

Even though she showed a modicum of restraint, the notion of destroying her racquet only two games into a tied match gave me great hope for future meltdowns.

Mayr was outplaying de los Rios, which made her temper less necessary.   She did, however, begin loudly shouting "come on!" after many one points, loudly enough to be heard across all the tournament’s courts.  Mayr won the first 6-3, and appeared to not need to employ any of her more aggressive gamesmanship for what looked like a straightforward match.

But the second set was not coming as easily as the first did.  Mayr struggled to break de los Rios’ serve, and became more and more frustrated, screaming and glaring at anyone within ear or eyeshot.  

She soon pulled a classic tactic out of her bag of tricks, shuffling her feet and moving around loudly and disruptively during de los Rios’s serve.  It’s a classic piece of gamesmanship, most memorably executed by Agnieszka Radwanska in her upset of then defending champion and #2 Maria Sharapova at the 2007 US Open (which you can see at the 6:00 mark of this video). 

The tactic worked, and Mayr was able to ride de los Rios' frustration to win the second set as well, and the match by the score of 6-3, 6-4.

After a predictably icy handshake, de los Rios lingered on the court for close to fifteen minutes continuing to complain to officials and anyone else who would listen about Mayr's return tactics.  I didn't understand most of what she was saying (I'm not totally fluent in fast, angry Spanish), but the general sentiment was "I hate her, how could you let her do this?"

I found Patricia after her match and talked to her

about her general modus operandi.  It was jarring talking to this small, innocent-looking, blonde haired, blue-eyed girl with braces off the court. She looked totally incapable of the terrorizing she is known for during matches.

* * *

TDF: I saw that Rossana was complaining to the officials about something after the match—do you know what she would have been complaining about?

Patricia Mayr: No.

TDF: OK...You seemed to be getting very angry while you were on court.  Do you usually get angry while you’re playing?

Patricia Mayr: No, not always (laughs). No, normally I’m very relaxed.  But sometimes, I get just aggravated when I miss the ball.  I have to learn—I’m still young.

TDF: There was a bunch of talk about your first round match in Budapest, about how huge arguments erupted between you and your opponent.  People say that you are always trying to make your opponent mad…

Patricia Mayr: No, no, it was the opposite.  I was really relaxed, and she made me mad.  During the two sets, the whole time she was saying I was not a nice person, or something.  She was pushing me.

It was not a nice match, but now it’s over.

TDF: So you think most of your matches are fairly calm…

Patricia Mayr: Yes.

TDF:…because it seems like most of them involve some contention.

Patricia Mayr: No, no, no.  I’m a big fighter, so you have to do that when you play against me.  I fight always.  And sometimes, it’s—I’m pushing myself so much, so maybe my opponent thinks it’s not okay.

TDF: So you think that you don’t make opponents angrier than other players do? Because it seems like you do.

Patricia Mayr: No, that’s tennis.  It’s about money, it’s about ranking, it’s all of that.  I have to play my game! I’m just pushing myself.

* * *

Mayr then had me turn off my little recorder so she could go off the record (a first for me), to elaborate on why she wasn't the villain in Budapest.

Rossana needed more time to cool off after her long chat with officials, but eventually she agreed to answer a few questions as well.

* * *

TDF: So what are your impressions of Patricia Mayr?

Rossana de los Rios: She’s very—how to say in English—she has a lot of attitude on the court.

She’s a very good player, but I was complaining when I was playing, and she was moving around on my second serve, to distract me. 

And I talked to the umpire, and I said during the match that it was disturbing me, but the umpire said that it was ok.

TDF: Is there a rule against moving during the return of serve?

Rossana de los Rios: Yeah, there is a rule that says that if you are moving normally, it’s ok.  But if you are doing something not normal, the umpire can say "no."

TDF: Had you heard anything about how Mayr was before this match?

Rossana de los Rios: Yeah, I’ve known her for almost one year.  I’ve played her twice before, I won once and I lost once.  I know how she is on the court.

TDF: So you knew what to expect?

Rossana de los Rios: Yeah, I knew it’s bad.  But you are playing, and you try to concentrate on your match.  But, you know, every minute that it’s going on…I started to feel it in the second set, and I talked to the umpire.  

But, you know, it’s tennis (laughs).

TDF: When you played her before did she do the same sort of things?

Rossana de los Rios: Yeah.  You know, the same.  Moving a lot on the second serve, saying "come on!" in your face, things like this.

TDF: Does she have a reputation around the tour? Do players talk about her?

Rossana de los Rios: I mean yeah, she has a lot of attitude on the court.  Everybody knows her now because she is almost one year in the top hundred, and we play each other a lot, so we know how she is.

TDF: Are there any other players like her, who do the things she does, or is she alone in that?

Rossana de los Rios: Not that I have played before, no.  Not that I remember.

* * *

In a possible victory for karma, Mayr surprisingly lost her second round match to up-and-coming American Courtney Dolehide 6-4, 6-2.

Dolehide, who at only 17-years old ranked #798 and is playing in her ever first $100k tournament. 

More on Courtney, who has committed to play for UCLA, in the very near future.