Tennis DVD Review: The Journeymen

On the advice of director/producer/star Geoff Grant, we bought a 24-pack for the group viewing of The Journeymen, the behind-the-scenes alcohol-laden tennis documentary shot by ATP players Grant and partner-in-crime Mark Keil.

"That's the best way to view the film," said the 34-year-old Grant. "Great work."

Actually a few of us had seen a rough cut of the movie in 2001, so we were primarily interested in upgrades to the embarrassment-factor footage and interviews. And we weren’t disappointed.

Grant and Keil were two "doubles specialists" who also experienced their "Andy Warhol moments" in singles during their careers. Keil’s moment in the sun brings about the documentary’s subtitle, "A Story About the Worst Player to Ever Beat Pete Sampras."

The film opens with footage of a young Keil beating an even-younger Sampras on grass in 1991 at the Queen’s Club, a Wimbledon warm-up tournament. If you’re vaguely familiar with the career of the hard-living Keil, you wonder if this is some sort of Hollywood trickery, superimposing Keil's head on maybe Boris Becker's body, showing him out-hitting the greatest grasscourt player ever. Pete was nary six months removed from his first slam title the year before at the US Open, firmly established in the Top 10, and the win framed the young Keil as an up-and-coming American.

Fast forward to approximately eight years later, and a shot of the shirtless Keil driving to a tournament with a beer in hand, and you get a picture of a player who has settled for a career as a doubles specialist, now simply trying to hang on and pay the rent.

Keil’s travails include dragging down partner Goran Ivanisevic in a first-round doubles loss, choking match points and double faulting to end a match against the eventually-No. 1-ranked Indian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, and the lowpoint of begging to get a wildcard into the doubles qualifying at the Masters Series-Miami. As Ivanisevic walks away after the doubles loss, a smiling Keil yells after him, "So Goran, when are we playing again?" A deadpan Goran replies in his thick Croatian accent, "We play three times –- first time, last time, and never again," before breaking into a grin.

Throughout the ups and downs, Keil attempts to stay positive and keep things in party perspective. "The good part about it is if I win I’m going to have a beer, if I lose I’m going to have a beer," Keil says.

The struggles of Keil and Grant are perfectly played off against well-moneyed top players such as Mark Philippoussis and Jan-Michael Gambill, shown arguing the virtues of the Jaguar versus the Ferrari in a tournament player lounge. Former No. 1s Andre Agassi, Pat Rafter, Jim Courier, and Becker also signed off on allowing their footage to be used in the film, and offer some unique insights (but for some real unique insights check the DVD extras, including Philippoussis expounding on "getting to know" Anna Kournikova).

Grant’s moment in the sun is shown at the 1998 US Open, where he reached the third round before losing a fifth-set heartbreaker to German journeyman Oliver Gross. During the film, which begins in January at the Australian Open and ends with the November ATP year-end championships, Grant decides to hang it up as a professional after he and Keil lose in the first round of the doubles qualifying at Miami.

These days Grant has his hands in a number of projects that allow him to stay involved in the game.

"I’m doing commentary for The Tennis Channel, the ATP stuff (commentary for the foreign feed), teaching (tennis to aspiring juniors) and selling the movie," Grant told Tennis-X between bites of barbecue as he prepared to leave his home in New York for the ATP stop in Scottsdale. "I’m working on a CD project, a gig I’m doing with Universal Records involving guys like Jim Courier, Mats Wilander, Pat Cash, guys that are not household names but are really good musicians. We want to actually have good tunes instead of fluff stuff, the Bryan brothers are going to be on board, I’m excited about it."

Also on the drawing board is a "Journeymen II," with either narrated extra footage from the first film or going on tour to shoot an entire new movie. Grant says that Keil, after a rough start, is getting things on track after a successful stint with Alcoholics Anonymous, and is working his way into coaching.

"He was bagging groceries at a supermarket, doing his A.A. thing which is great, staying sober," Grant said of the 36-year-old Keil. "He’s the hitting partner of a girl out in Southern Cal., and he is getting into coaching...He was an overachiever, a lot of people think he was just a slacker from the movie -- he was just a slacker at the end of his career because he was so burned out, but (earlier in his career) he was so organized, a touring pro at the club, he paid the mortgage on a house and drove a Porsche, he was so professional."

The Journeymen is a true Greek tragedy between the circling-the-drain ending of Keil’s career and the struggles and eventual burn-out of Grant, all the while offering never-before-seen insight, an "insider’s view" into the workings of the men’s tour. A raw, naked (literally at times) and heartfelt effort, The Journeymen is a wild ride that will appeal to tennis and non-tennis fans alike.

Richard Vach (rvach@comcast.net) is a senior writer for Tennis-X.com.