Word: tommasi
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...Notice he didn't say, 'If I were gay,'" says Tommasi. "He said, 'If I were a little more...
...Tele+ booth was infernally hot. Clerici asked the attendants for an electric fan. When his request went unfulfilled, he simply stripped and called the match nude. Though viewers weren't treated to the full Gianni, "Quite a few people stopped by the booth that day," says Tommasi...
...nearly 50 years ago when Tommasi played in a tennis tournament in Clerici's hometown, Como, make an unlikely pair. Rhino, as Clerici calls his partner?"Look at his nose and then you understand," he says?is a former top international boxing matchmaker, once ranked as the world's third-best promoter by Ring Magazine. A stats junkie endowed with an encyclopedic sports memory, he moonlights as a columnist for the Italian dailies Il Tempo and La Gazzetta dello Sport. In 1993 he won the atp media excellence award...
Clerici and Tommasi share a booth at Grand Slam tournaments, Italy's Davis Cup competitions and a handful of lesser events. Though it has been 26 years since an Italian player won a major tennis title (Adriano Panatta at the 1976 French Open), Clerici and Tommasi's broadcasts are popularissimo. How popular, no one is quite sure. "Even if we had numbers, they wouldn't be accurate," explains Tommasi. "In Italy, 80% of the country gets cable without paying...
Though their commentary can traverse the baseline of good taste, they need not worry about censure from broadcasting regulators. "We live in a free country," says Tommasi. "We say what we say. We are just two good friends watching tennis matches." Occasionally they get an earful from an offended viewer. When that happens, they read the complaint on the air. Without fail, they are then bombarded with supportive e-mails. "When people say, 'You are too vulgar,' I have to laugh," says Clerici. "The greatest vulgarity in life is not having a sense of humor...