"But now," he told me, "everybody's got a tournament.
"I leave at the end of the month," he says, "got a tournament in Spain, then Italy, Ireland, Gleneagles.
"One of those 11 or 12 seeds is going to knock off a 5 or a 6 because they've already got a tournament game under their belt," said Fran Fraschilla, a former Manhattan and St. John's coach who is now an ESPN analyst.
It's his first time playing at Royal Melbourne — he came here in 2005 in an attempt to get into a tournament, but never got in as a reserve.
Every chance I get at a tournament, I will go over a have a chat with the kids there, just to get them excited and interested in this game".
"Roy knows this with his experience, but when you get to a tournament it's about the 90 minutes on the day and you have to get it right.
"We made a bid to get a major tennis tournament, but did not succeed this year," he said.
Wild-card entry into tournaments — which Sharapova has received for each of the three she's played since returning to the circuit last month — exists for a number of reasons, one of which is to get a player into a tournament whose low ranking does not actually reflect how well she is playing or has played.
"I've been working hard, not only when I go home, but when I get to a tournament, I work even harder," she said.
A few of them might get caught up in it a little bit too much and think that, 'Gosh, you know, maybe I can really do this.' Until you get on a tournament golf course under tournament conditions, it's very hard to understand what it's like".
