ABOVE (back row left to right) Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Conners, Ilie Nastase, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt. (Front row left to right) Mats Wilander, Stephan Edberg, Gustavo Kuerten, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Jim Courier all pose as part of a group of past # 1 ranked men’s tennis players at the ATP dinner in New York, August 2013 before the start of the US Open.
SVM: What is the most important element of your life here in Sun Valley? What could you not live without? MW: The most important thing about living out here is that in nearly 23.5 hours out of each day, there is absolutely no noise pollution. Nothing. You can’t hear a manmade noise. It’s just the sound of the wind and the sound of the river and whatever comes rolling in … thunder maybe. It is so relaxing. It takes me right out of my daily routine while I’m on the road. It’s more than the views. It’s the sound that is not there. The sound of nature. SVM: What is your favorite Sun Valley: a) sound b) taste c) touch? MW: Sound: East Fork River and Cove Creek, which I can hear from our bedroom window. I’m not sure if it’s the bed or the company, but it’s my favorite. Taste: That clean smell of nature; simple and pure. Touch: Would have to be the temperature. The weather is amazing here. Some say weather isn’t that important. Yes it is. I have traveled all over the world and the weather here is the best in the world.
SVM: What local WRV charity do you feel most strongly about? And why? MW: There are so many that we all support locally: The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, Advocates, YMCA or Firefighter’s Ball. But my real passion has been DEBRA of America, which is working to raise awareness for the genetic disease EB [Epidermal Bulluyosa]. My son has a mild form of the disease and our daughter is a carrier as well. But I’m not doing it for them. I’m doing it for all the others that have this horrible disease. I have also launched the MW (Mats Wilander)
Foundation as a way to help raise awareness and offer support for the families with children affected by EB. These families need financial support for the treatments that are available.
SVM: What was the idea
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behind Wilander On Wheels (W.O.W.)? MW: The idea started four or five years ago when I was participating at one of these tennis fantasy camps, which are usually four-day events in Hawaii or Arizona or Burlington or wherever, where me and a couple of other tennis pros play tennis with you for four hours a day. I am such a lover of tennis that I often would go out and play in the evenings with participants, many of whom felt the same way. They just wanted to play. Well, I got stuck in an airport with one of the participants while trying to get to one of these events. He happened to be a weatherman in Las Vegas, which they say is the easiest job in the world. But we were stuck in Detroit and we were missing a whole day and we thought, “This is B.S. because we aren’t playing tennis, we’re sitting in Detroit.” And, on top of it, my friend, the Las Vegas weatherman, was thinking, “Hey, this is getting really expensive,” so I just said, why don’t I just drive down to you guys next time and we can both avoid being stranded in Detroit. And he said great and Wilander on Wheels was born.
SVM: How did you get W.O.W. going? MW:: I met Cameron Lickle at Zenergy one day. It was the sound of
his playing that made me stop. Tennis is all about sound: the sound
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