Sveta kills the pain

I had somewhat of a bad, mishap-filled morning, but even I was able to relax and laugh--and laugh--when Svetlana Kuznetsova did her all-access meeting with the media. We got on the subject of what it's like to have been on the tour for so long, how Sveta's tour life has changed, what kind of advice she would give, and has received--that sort of thing.

Kuznetsova, who serves as the unofficial source of wisdom for the tour, talked about how much it troubles her when players are criticized because they don't win a major, or they don't this or that. She spoke of the importance and uniqueness of each individual career, and made a point of explaining how much Anna Kournikova's career meant to her.

The most important thing, she said, is to have humility, and to treat every person with respect. This got my attention, and I asked her if she'd like to run our country. She demurred at first, then changed her answer to "Never say never!" and put it on her "Who knows?! future jobs to do" list, along with Fed Cup captain.

Kuznetsova said that she doesn't do long practices like she used to, but that her practice period is more intense. She likes so much to practice with top players that she and her coach are making an effort to find her other players with whom to practice.

The Russian star said that the best advice she ever got came from Martina Navratilova, who told her that, when she gets onto the court, to forget everything--no matter how bad and critical it is--and focus on the tennis. The advice she would give your younger self is "Listen more to yourself."

Kuznetsova wasn't the only player to charm us with wit. World number 1 Karolina Pliskova, when told that she was still leading the WTA in aces this year, deadpanned, "It's every year." Asked about her New Year's resolution to "bend my knees more," Pliskova said she thought she was doing "a little better--maybe five centimeters."

As a matter of fact, Pliskova is serving fewer aces these days because, she said, she has added body serves and has been hitting more of them.

Billie Jean King would have been proud of Pliskova's statement that she's learning to use the pressure to her advantage rather than be harmed by it.

Rogers Cup champion Elina Svitolina talked about the many, constant changes that players have to make because of weather, the surface, the balls---so many factors that require players to make fast adjustments. She also said that her steady progression up the rankings reflects how she was raised by her parents, who taught her to always take every task step by step.

Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza, when asked about her apparent love of the big stage, said that she held that mindset from the beginning of her career: "I want to be on the center court. What do I have to do to get there?"

All of the players talked about the brutality of social media, but no one summed it up better than Jo Konta, when she described trolls, attackers and threat-makers as people "with too much time on their hands and not enough imagination to do something with it." The British star was quite entertaining, and talked about everything from her Hungarian conversations with Timea Babos to her post-Wimbledon experiences.

Simona Halep and Angie Kerber also met the press, but unfortunately, I had other obligations and was unable to attend their sessions.