Build a Player with BAGEL's Stuart Brumfitt

Women have the best two-handed backhands, Mattia Bellucci is our sartorial savior, and Pat Rafter has life-altering thighs.

Welcome back to Build a Player, a series in which I have ordinary tennis partisans stitch together their favorite pro-player qualities to form the ultimate player. Today’s guest is Stuart Brumfitt, who has been professionally liable for something mouthy internet denizens are obsessed with but mightn’t ever master—having taste—practically his whole career. All’s to say, Stu has an impressive oeuvre as an Editor, having helmed all the good titles (Fantastic Man, The Face, i-D, Dazed) and now, his very own tennis dominion, BAGEL, of which I am a big fangirl. Over to Stu.

What’s your game like?

In the ’90s, we all wanted to be amazing baseliners, but also had old-school British coaches teaching us to chip and charge and serve and volley. So it’s a mixed-up game of baseline fantasy and lawn tennis relic shots.

My game is probably closest to my old favorite Steffi Graf, going for big forehands and slicing every backhand. All the top coaches we’ve interviewed in BAGEL say said the most important thing is identifying your game. I really need to do that.

Why do you keep coming back to tennis?

I stopped playing tennis for 15-20 years, but when I started again in my mid-30s, I was hit by this gorgeous nostalgia for all the time I’d spent on court, the joy of hitting and the sport’s aesthetics. I still hate playing matches though—too much junior tournament PTSD. If I were on tour, I’d rather be the hitting partner than the player.

SERVE
Serena. I just saw both her comeback matches live at Queens and Wimbledon and it is the most perfectly-oiled machine. The crowd gasped every time she cracked one over 120mph. Or Federer for effortlessness and placement.

FOREHAND
Alcaraz. It follows this perfect arc where the tip of the racket hits the limit of the human swing. You can almost see a circle around it, like da Vinci’s Vitruvian man.

BACKHAND
Anisimova. Women have by far the best two-handed backhands. I love the stat where hers was bigger than all the men’s backhands at the last US Open. Absolute bullet. I have a long, boring story that I like to tell people about how my junior career crumbled when I changed to a one-hander (because I copied a guy a couple of years older who I fancied). Basically, I wish I still had a great double-hander in the mould of Amanda and the old greats like Moncia Seles and Jennifer Capriati.

MOVEMENT
Federer. So pantherine!

NET GAME
Federer. Because he’s not a classic serve and volleyer, but still better than all the S&V purists. Or one of the doubles pros, who few of us know enough about. Watching doubles live is so much fun. It’s weird it’s never translated onto TV. Justice for them.

(SARTORIAL) STYLE
Mattia Bellucci. His new C.P. Company kits are the best thing to have happened to tennis since the early noughties. They’ve got enough of a nod to nostalgia but are in contemporary materials. In the new issue, we asked him who the best dressed player is and he unflinchingly said himself. Fair enough. The yellow print boxy polo he wore earlier this year is my heaven.

A SECRET SEVENTH THING
When I was a closeted teenager on holiday in LA, I sat next to Pat Rafter on a tour of Universal Studios and had his big, hairy, tanned thighs rubbing up against mine. Let’s call it an awakening.

• I moved house, and I think I want to make the twelve resplendent East River Park hard courts my bitch (my home courts). If early mornings are convenient for you, let’s talk?!?!

• Thanks and praise to deadpan overlord MC Nanda for saying what I couldn’t about the state of Miu Miu. “Salesforce,” “West Village” and “influencer corporate merch” are key terms; but I’ll leave you with the TikTok link. Coco is just wearing extremely normal tennis clothes with a $1400 logo affixed, y’know???

• If I were to host an event in New York, what would be good? Some casual hitting? Cocktail hour and dating? Vintage tennis clothes curation? All that and more? Please weigh in. Ideas are percolating and ideally, I can merge them with yours.