NEWPORT, R.I. — I’ve been to the International Tennis Hall of Fame many times before, always on research trips that I’ve tacked onto visiting friends and family in New England. The Hall’s library is an incredible resource; I’ve spent many long happy days holed up in their clock tower reading room, losing myself in rabbit holes of perusing old books, magazines, and other assorted ephemera.
But this Saturday was the first time I’d come up to Newport for their main event: the annual induction ceremony into the Hall of Fame.
Even with the festivities wedged against the first day of the U.S. Open, it felt crucial to me to make the four-hour trip to Rhode Island, because, at last, my G.O.A.T. was getting in.
No, not Roger Federer—though he’s quite nifty, too—but the one and only Mary Carillo. Yes, the menu for the big ceremony was the same as the bagged lunch offering in the event’s makeshift media work room: Ham and Swiss.
After an introduction by her idol and good friend Billie Jean King, Carillo took over the Hall of Fame’s stage like truly no one had ever done before.
You really should watch the whole thing in full below. I was sitting in the very last row, smiling the entire time.
She dazzled right away, calling King “the most singularly American person I’ve ever known—and I mean that in the best way.”
From there Carillo was off to the races, mixing charming childhood stories into remarkable crowd work with the pantheon of greats sitting in front of her.
It will surprise none that this was the section of her speech that resonated with me most:
“What a deep privilege it was to have that credential around my neck. I wanted to be a professional, a real journalist, knowing that what counts is to be accurate and to be fair. And there were way too many times when I was neither. But, that’s what I strove for, anyway. To love our sport with clear eyes. And, when necessary, to tell hard truths.
“And while it is an occupational hazard to piss off people in power—especially your bosses—here’s what you do, Gabriela:1 You do your time in the penalty box with the hope that you get out of it and have nobody hold a mortgage on you. Say what you mean, mean what you say, knowing the price and paying it without regret.
“And if you’re really lucky, really lucky, you’ve gotten to work in this game when tennis launched itself into the stratosphere.”
Carillo’s superpower was always mixing reverence and irreverence, and she hit a classic one-two punch by segueing from the call to high-minded journalism to what she called “a brief but moving poem.”
“Bjorn and John. Martina and Chris;
Andre and Pete was a matchup of bliss.
Billie Jean versus inequality;
John and Jimmy: no frivolity.
John and Ivan was nothing trivial.
And as with Jimmy: not convivial.
Monica and Stephanie: two as tough as two can be;
Boris playing Stefan was a serve-and-volley symphony.
Maria and clay—and Maria won the day.
Venus and Serena, in every arena, they reign supreme-a.
They change things for good, as pathfinders should.
Rafa and Roger, and Novak the dislodger.
And he’s still out there! That old codger.
Aryna and Iga and Coco and Elena.
There’s way too many women; I really can’t explain-a.
Carlos and Jannik: stereophonic.
Their level grows so comical, I need a gin and tonical…oh boy, that sucks. I really gotta...
I don’t want to spoil the whole thing; please do watch it when you have a chance to savor it.
It may have seemed like a mismatch, to some, to see Mary Carillo on the same dais as Roger Federer. But for me, what she can do with a microphone matches what he could do with a racquet, and the sport is so, so fortunate to have had them both.
The most memorable part of the Federer half of the ceremony, perhaps, came from a Federer who has been long seen but rarely heard: Mirka, his wife, who introduced him. There was a lot of predicting going on beforehand about who might make Federer’s introduction—particularly after Maria Sharapova went a very splashy route by tapping Serena Williams last year—but in the end Federer kept it in the family, which really made the night much more personal for a guy whose career has felt like it belonged to the world.
Even for Roger Federer, they were tough acts to follow.
After the paywall, a look ahead at matches to watch on Day 1 of the 2026 U.S. Open.