"Krone" interview

Schett: “It’s human not to be perfect”

A constant in tennis broadcasting for almost 20 years: the former top tennis player Barbara Schett from Tyrol.

(Bild: ServusTV/Neumayr_Christian Leopold)

The ATP tennis tournament in Vienna starts today with the qualifiers, tomorrow (Sunday) Dominic Thiem says goodbye at a show match and from Monday it really gets going. ServusTV and expert and ex-professional Barbara Schett will be with us all week, giving us deeper insights into her second career in a big "Krone" interview.

"Krone": Ms. Schett, you've been on TV as a presenter, commentator and expert for longer than you were on the court as a tennis pro. Do you already feel more like a TV expert than a tennis player?
Barbara Schett: At the French Open 2025, I'll be celebrating 20 years in this job, and I've been actively playing on the WTA Tour for twelve years. I can still remember my time in professional tennis very well and am very happy that I was able to stay true to the sport. The tennis circus is like a big family and I was able to start a great second career here. Agents, TV pundits and managers are often still the same, only the field of players changes and gets younger, of course. When I think about the fact that I've been involved in professional tennis for a total of 32 years, I feel sick for a moment. (laughs)

How did your television career actually begin? Did someone approach you, or did you already make an effort at the end of your active sporting career?
I'm not a person who leaves things to chance and, like Dominic Thiem now, I knew a year in advance that I was going to retire. I then started to network more actively because I knew I wanted to go into this area. It was important to me that my career after sport was built on several pillars. I am not only active in TV, but have also been an ambassador for the WTA tournament in Linz for 20 years. I have repeatedly organized training camps for young people with the ÖTV and I am also a brand ambassador. Almost 20 years ago, I got a call from Eurosport International asking if I would like to work for them at the French Open - the rest is history. In the beginning, I only did a few interviews, but now I also present or am an expert. These are all different areas of work and I really enjoy the versatility.

Are there any favorites among these subsections?
At ServusTV, I'm now working as an expert at the Stadthallen tournament. It's a bit less work than presenting the Grand Slams for Eurosport. There you're on duty from early to late and really exhausted at the end. But I think it's generally important to look around early enough to see what comes after your active career. If you're not Federer or Nadal, people won't necessarily be waiting for you. You make your own luck. I've always been very disciplined in tennis and I'm benefiting from that here too.

There are a few ex-athletes where you immediately notice that they feel comfortable in front of the camera and that suits them - that's also the case with you. Has this natural, mutual love of the camera always been there?
In the beginning there was a lot of recording, but there was a great producer at Eurosport who had a lot of faith in me and also encouraged me more and more to go live. Ten or 15 years ago, I could never have imagined presenting programs. It requires a completely different level of preparation and you have to be extremely flexible, especially in tennis. A match can last 90 minutes or five hours. Like many people in their jobs, I've continued to learn, become more mature and therefore more confident. I'm no longer nervous, but there's always a certain amount of tension. On Eurosport, we sometimes have seven to ten million viewers. That's enormous, you have to take that into account. But I've already experienced a lot of things that can happen live - nothing upsets me so quickly.

Schett in the Stadthalle tennis match with ServusTV sports director Christian Nehiba.

(Bild: ServusTV/Manuel Seeger)

As a former professional player, it is of course also easier to go to interviews with active players and elicit things from them that an ordinary journalist would perhaps not find out so easily. Do you often get that little bit of extra information out of someone?
Even with the younger players, word gets around that you were once part of the whole thing and you get that respect back from the player. I always thought you'd lose touch, but the coaches explain it to the youngsters, then they look on YouTube and know their way around. When someone talked to me about tactics, it was of course very different to someone who was active himself. Of course, a more in-depth conversation is possible. You can lean a little further out of the window. If I then say to Novak Djokovic: "What kind of forehand was that? I would have done it better", he doesn't get angry, you can take it with humor. I tend to know what you can ask in which situation. I wasn't always easy with journalists, but I certainly have a different approach because I come from the inside.

You probably won't be able to have as much banter with every player as you can with Novak Djokovic, who usually walks off the court as the winner in interviews ...
Of course not. I'm closer with some, but not with others. Some prefer interviews, others don't like them at all. But the important thing is that the respect is there and I've long since earned it from everyone.

Have you started to see the whole sport of tennis through different eyes as a result of your television career?
As a tennis player, you are much more egotistical and often can't understand why you have to stand around and wait for an interview. On the other hand, I've become more tolerant and understand that you often just ask the same questions because you have to. The media is also incredibly important. The fact that the tennis pros earn so much money is largely due to the TV broadcasts and the many stories and interviews in print, radio and online products. So take your time, be respectful and polite and talk to them - it increases your own value in the end and we're all in the same boat.

In almost 20 years of television reporting, have you come across any particularly striking slip-ups? They always say that you learn the most from mistakes.
Mistakes happen all the time, I'm relatively relaxed about it. During a live broadcast of the French Open, I was once told that Djokovic, who was due to play Diego Schwartzman, had gone back to the hotel because it was raining. So without waiting for the cancellation. But that was false information, he was always there and was quite annoyed that I had spread the wrong rumors. I had to correct it the next day and of course it was unpleasant because you look like the biggest fool. But something always happens. There are 128 players on the table at a Grand Slam, so if a first name doesn't pop into your head straight away, the world doesn't end. Bad things have never happened. Sometimes a light goes out or there's a problem with the cable connection. That can all be solved. In live broadcasts, it's also human nature not to be perfect.

But you can't become an enfant terrible like the Australian Nick Kyrgios?
That's out of the question. If he can look himself in the mirror in the evening and make peace with himself, that's perfectly okay. But that's not my approach.

Were there other athletes who initially served as role models for you in their second career in television?
There are very few women in particular who are on the tennis circuit like I am. Andrea Petković has followed suit and does quite a lot, Daniela Hantuchová is also very active, but behind her it quickly gets thin. I'm a role model for them, which is of course very nice for me. We might be nice to watch on TV, but there's a lot of work behind it. The amount of time involved in a Grand Slam is so great that many people don't want to do it. Of course, you know colleagues like John McEnroe, Jim Courier and the like - there's always very nice feedback. The great thing is that it's a worldwide sport and you see each other everywhere.

You just mentioned it: Do you have to fight a lot against stereotypes? Is it sometimes as difficult for a woman in your role as it is in extremely masculine soccer?
I do have the feeling that you always have to do a bit more. You have to know a bit more about the technical aspects. You should always look good and people pay meticulous attention to what you wear - that's definitely not the case with men. Today, I've long since gained enough self-confidence to speak up clearly when something doesn't suit me. But we women certainly don't have it any easier.

There is hardly any other sport in the world where you are so uprooted as in tennis. The squad practically travels across the globe for eleven months of the year. You've long since settled in Australia with your husband and child, but you still travel a lot in your job in television. Is it still a different, more pleasant way of being on the road?
To a large extent, I can choose what I do and if it gets too much for me, then I cancel something, but I'm still on the road for a good 20 weeks a year. You don't live that intensely in any other sport. Australia isn't exactly around the corner, but I owe a lot to my husband, who played actively himself. He is incredibly supportive and knows how much I live for tennis, even for television. We're only separated from each other for just under a month twice a year - and now is just such a time. We'll be spending time in Austria until Christmas in mid-November, then we'll go back. But we still live according to the tennis schedule. We don't count by Easter or weeks, but "after Indian Wells" or "before the French Open". (laughs) None of this would be possible without my husband.

When you retired from active tennis, you were only 28. Dominic Thiem is now 31 and tennis legend Thomas Muster showed some incomprehension about the fact that he wants to fight his way back even longer. As someone who also ended his career at a young age, how do you see it?
Ultimately, everyone has to decide for themselves and it's never an easy decision. In the past, there were often early career retirements, but today nobody stops at the beginning of their 30s. We would all have liked to have seen Dominic for longer and I think he would have had a few more good years, but he has his reasons and that has to be accepted. Only he himself knows how his wrist is really doing and what his mood is like. Thomas Muster is also a completely different guy to Domi. With Nadal, everyone wondered whether he shouldn't have retired earlier. No matter how you do it, it will never suit everyone.

Let's move on to the Stadthalle tournament. Who is your favorite and how far can Thiem get in the last tournament of his life?
It's a shame that Jannik Sinner, the defending champion, isn't there. When I saw that he preferred to play in Saudi Arabia, I wrote him a message saying that I was very disappointed about his absence. He jokingly apologized and said we'd see each other somewhere soon. (laughs) With players like Zverev and Dimitrov, the tournament still has a sensational line-up. The cut in the world rankings is around 50, that's crazy. If Dominic makes it through one or two rounds, that would be a miracle given the field of participants. Maybe the home crowd can spur him on once again, everyone will want to come to the farewell. Realistically, however, I don't expect there to be any big sensations.

But you didn't give me the winner you predicted in your answer ...
Oh, I don't like predictions at all. Zverev is definitely the big favorite. I don't have to narrow it down to one person, do I?

Who are you most looking forward to when you think about an interview?
That's a good question! I would have loved to talk to Daniil Medvedev (had to cancel at short notice - author's note). I think he's insanely funny and he's great to joke around with. I've also had many great interview moments with Sascha Zverev, but he can also be very taciturn, depending on his mood at the time.