Unlike movie stars, the great thing about interviewing a famous tennis player is the pleasure of actually interviewing a famous tennis player.
Not flanked by minders, publicist, manager or general dogbodies, sports people are trusted with their own minds. They are granted the right of ‘free speech' and allowed to give opinions. Revolutionary!
This refreshing discovery came to me as I stepped into a car with tennis ace Caroline Wozniacki during a WTA promotional shoot ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Dubai Tennis Championships this week.
Wozniacki, her older brother Patrik, and I. "That's it," I thought as I scanned the pavement behind us for a publicist practically tripping on her own overflowing levels of pure panic and self-importance.
The 21-year-old sends a text and I wonder to myself if the message just pinged across the world to her equally famous beau, golfer Rory McIlroy.
If the smile on her face was anything to go by, the response was definitely from the Northern Irish lover.
His name brings an immediate smile, almost as big as the one the text brought to her face.
"He's great," she said looking back at her iPhone and confirming my initial thought. "It's going really well. I'm really very happy."
McIlroy was fine-tuning his game ahead of an assault on the Dubai Desert Classic two weeks ago and Wozniacki showed her support, before heading over to Doha and then back to Dubai this week.
"Dubai is such a great place," she said. "I really love it here. I'm spending more and more time here and training here out of the season. It has so much to offer."
McIlroy, the reigning US Open golf champion, and Wozniacki started dating last year when the golfer split from his childhood sweetheart Holly Sweeney.
Love blossomed in Europe when they met at a boxing match in July and bloomed further in the US when he attended some of her tournaments in August.
The pair have even already earned their celebrity nickname thanks to the golf sensation giving his tennis star girlfriend an unforgettable present — a club inscribed with ‘Wozzilroy' — a combination of their surnames.
While McIlroy is already a good tennis player, Wozniacki says she has now started golf lessons.
"I'm really enjoying playing to be honest," she said. "I think it's good to try new things although I think it's more mental than tennis. One wrong movement and the ball goes in the trees."
The two millionaires met at David Haye's world-title fight in Hamburg last July and now live their modern romance through Twitter and the paparazzi.
"I definitely did not expect it to become that big, it was everywhere," she told the media at the time.
Apart for much of the season for obvious reasons, she says it's easier because he understands. "It makes it much easier because he is a professional sportsman too. So he gets it," she said. "That takes off the pressure too a bit."
But here in Dubai it's all about Wozniacki who is back to defend her Dubai Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title from last year.
As a newly-appointed ambassador for the championships, the Dane was raring to see what the Jumeirah neighbourhood of the city had in store.
Filming a promotional video for the tournament, the blonde was up for anything, with a stand-up paddle boarding first on the agenda.
Jellyfish-dodging and getting used to the cooler temperatures of the Dubai sea, it wasn't long before the tennis star was up and paddling into the blue.
With her core strength and obvious sporting advantage, just a momentary lapse in concentration saw her plummet into the water as she started to gather an impressive crowd of fans on the shore.
Flashes from cameras didn't deter her as she slowly gained more and more confidence, occasionally joking "I'm practically a pro" met with laughter from passers-by.
"I really love water sports, but sometimes they can be a bit dangerous which makes it hard for me to give it everything," she told tabloid! "It's hard because I always have to be careful, and in the back of my mind it all comes back to tennis for me. But I do really enjoy having a go."
Towelled dry, Wozniacki was sipping mocktails at the Jumeirah's Mina A'Salam Hotel, had jumped aboard an abra and took a shine to the turtles in the sanctuary at the beach-front property.
Delivering her lines for the video with ease — even when she did stumble, finding the whole affair more comical than frustrating — Wozniacki smiled throughout.
Having helped herself to a chocolate biscuit — yes, they eat rubbish too — it was off for the next instalment in the Jumeirah tour, the Jumeirah Mosque.
Another well-delivered piece to the camera and the apprehension of being away from the practice courts started to set in as the young Dane itched to wrap things up.
As she slipped away, out came the phone, surely for another message of love.
