Q&A: 'Acing Depression' w/ Cliff Richey

The original bad boy of tennis talks about his memoir, the current US Davis Cup team, his friendship with Ivan Lendl, and playing against 'Rocket' Rod Laver.

By Ted LePak

Cliff Richey talks about his memoir, 'Acing Depression'

Tennis Now caught up with the original bad boy of tennis, Cliff Richey, as he appeared in Texas to raise awareness for clinical depression through his memoir, Acing Depression, which chronicles his battle with the illness as he played out his successful career.

Richey was ranked the No. 1 American tennis player in 1970, was an active member in the 1970 Davis Cup team that defeated West Germany for the trophy, and -- as the Open Era began at the tail end of his career -- was a semifinalist of both the French and U.S. Opens.

Tennis Now: What’s the biggest take-away from your book?

Cliff Richey: Well I wrote the book to try to help people who may suffer from clinical depression, or real even bi-polar, but you know my disease is clinical depression. And coming out of recovery I started becoming an advocate for clinical depression. A friend of mine at the golf course said one day, “Have you ever thought about writing a book?” and at this point I’d gone public with my clinical depression and said hey we don’t really do this right, we need to talk about this more as a society. So I said to him “Not about my tennis career…but if it’s what I think your thinking.” And he said, “Yeah, I think you got a story to tell.” So I thought it over and I decided if I could help one person it would be worth it. So my oldest daughter and I sat down, and she has a Ph.D in comparative literature from Princeton. So there are good tennis stories in there people have never heard but it’s a book for mental health and clinical depression advocacy.

TN: Did tennis help you with your depression or did it negatively affect you as you struggled to cope with it?

CR: You know, it was an exacerbator. When I was losing skill -- which was a major loss for me personally -- I started going into depression and I’m probably predisposed anyway, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I just knew something was wrong. I was out of sync with everyone and everybody. I was medicated with alcohol and valium and all the things that are bad for you if you have depression 'cause those are depressants! If anything, tennis was a trigger for me.

TN: How did the grind of the game affect or enhance it?

CR: Well again, losses weren’t bothering me as much as knowing that there was a point that I wasn’t as skillful as I once was. My backhand was…unorthodox, you wouldn’t teach my backhand, and as I got a little older I had trouble pulling the trigger on it. It was almost like I’d developed the yips.

TN: Is depression on the ATP, WTA, or ITF's radar? Do they have an infrastructure set up and equipped to deal with it?

CR: They’ve started to become more aware of it. I’m actually a little more familiar with the WTA than I am with the ATP. Nancy was a founder of the WTA and I was a founder of the ATP so you would think I’d be a little more familiar with the ATP! Anyhow, the original nine of the WTA had their 40^th anniversary this year at the Family Circle Cup and the executive director of the WTA came up to me, and she was aware of my book, and she wanted to talk to me about one of their members. That’s all I’ll say, but they’re getting it out into the discussion which it needs to be. I mean between 10-12 percent of the population has depression, so you can probably look at the draw of a tournament and figure out the ones that do! But they need to address it more, all sports do.

TN: What is your current involvement with the ATP and the USTA?

CR: I really don’t have an involvement with the ATP. They don’t do a heck of a lot with the older guys much, but the USTA still invites us to all the Davis Cup matches in America, and I go to the Open every year with this club they call the Last Eight Club. If you’ve ever made it to the quarterfinals or better you get credentialed and you can have a good time, and I did last year and the last couple years. Other than that I getting a few clinics in relation to the book, for instance I’m going to Florida next month to do a few clinics and a few book signings.

TN: Speaking of Davis Cup, what do you think of the US Davis Cup Team? They are doing pretty well right now!

CR: They are doing good! I guess they lost in the semis the other day, and I actually saw them the last time they won it. You know the Davis Cup in it’s heyday was a big big deal, and now it’s getting back to being a little bit of a bigger deal, but American tennis in general needs to make a comeback and until we get some young guys that are better than what we have right now, our Davis Cup chances aren’t looking good for the next few years.

TN: Who are your favorite players to watch these days?

CR: I love to watch Federer. And because of my golf playing, I’ve gotten to know Ivan Lendl real well, we’re good buddies. He was coming onto the [ATP] tour the year I went off. We played a celebrity golf tour for about 15 years. It was real golf too, prize money, no handicaps and everything! It was crazy! I got to know him real well through the golf and I saw him at the U.S. Open and I was glad to see Andy Murray win the Open.

TN: There has been some talk of a pension plan for the professional tennis players from the beginning of the Open Era who have essentially paved the way for the millions of dollars these players are making now. What are your thoughts on this pension plan?

CR: I don’t know that prior to the ATP being formed, that the ATP would be in anyway able to consider it but I don’t know enough about any proposal. The only people I could see wanting to do anything would be the USTA, you know they might consider doing something for the guys. You know back when I won Davis Cup back in ’69 and ’70, all we did was make expense money. So if you look back, all the USTA stuff could probably do something but I don’t agree necessarily that the pre-Open guys should be getting a pension.

TN: What is this racquet you got here? Is this what you play with nowadays?

CR: You know I really don’t play tennis anymore.

TN: Really? So you’re all golf now?

CR: Yeah Nancy and I were kind of kidding when we walked in with this racquet, I’ll be using this as a prop tonight. I probably hit balls only twice a year now. I was at a tennis book advocacy thing in Decatur, Illinois, back in May of 2011 and they wanted me to play a pro-am with some pretty good club players and I played and I wasn’t too bad! I was excited cause I never play anymore!

TN: There is a debate going on right now for the Australian Open. Who is the greatest of all time, Roger Federer or Rod Laver?

CR: Oh man, well now that Roger finally won the French Open back in ’09, and the fact that he’s won more majors than anyone alive… my vote would still be for a tie, for the simple reason that it’s incredible to win a Grand Slam in the one calendar year and the fact that Rocket won two and they were seven years apart. So for me it’s a tie, but I’m a little biased towards Laver because Laver was more my generation. In fact, he was the first pro match I ever played for money!

When Arthur Ashe won the US Open in ’68 he didn’t get any money, because the USTA wouldn’t let us Americans play for money. So the next year they turned us loose, and I decided to go pro at the Madison Square Garden Open. The 32 best players in the world, and I called the tournament director and said, “I’m going pro,” and he said, “Well you might want to think about that.” And I said, “I’ve dreamed of being a pro my whole life instead of this under-the-table stuff.” So he said “Well the way it works is: if you lose in the first round, you get nothing.” So I told him, “I didn’t stutter, I’m turning pro.” He says, ”We’ll I hate to tell you we’ve already made the draw, you play Rod Laver in the first round.” And I beat him 6-4, 3-6, 6-4!

Editor's Note -- A message about clinical depression from Amy Birdchill Lavergne, M. Ed, LMFT-S, LPC-S and Director of the Nick Finnegan Counseling Center: "Clinical depression research has shown that the best treatment is to see a multidisciplinary team with a psychiatrist and a counselor, sometimes medication intervention, and counseling. Exercise and diet are very important as well. Every person suffering from depression should receive counseling and learn coping skills to deal with the issues that are very heavy on their mind."