![]() He takes off his hat, revealing a look that in recent years has made him the object of intense internet affection: a bleached, ‘90s-Agassi-style ponytail, with salt-and-pepper roots creeping into the platinum. You get the sense that Wentz would play until the sun went down if nobody stopped him, so I prompt us to take a seat after about an hour. “There’s a depravity to tennis that you shouldn’t apply to the rest of your life.” “The only way you can get the impossible dropshot is to have this sheer will,” he says. He knows this because he once played it so intensely and for so long that he actually barfed. “It’s a really barfy game,” Wentz says, grinning. It’s basically running suicides, but with tennis racquets. It sounds like gentle schoolyard fun, but because it’s a game of sharp angles and trick shots, it requires a ton of sprinting and direction changes. ![]() “Do you want to play a game?” he asks, before explaining the rules of a deceptively tortuous and addicting exercise called “dingum.” It’s a kind of finesse-oriented minigame where each ball must be hit only into the service boxes, and no forceful shots are allowed. Compact, spritely, and super fit, the 43-year-old seems to have the natural boundless energy of someone half his age. He gracefully adjusts his level of play to match whomever he’s playing across without making them feel condescended to.Īfter a round of low-stakes hitting, Wentz has an idea. He’s genuinely enthusiastic about a good rally, intense and focused without being over competitive. And it’s true: Wentz is such a friendly and accommodating court companion that after just a few balls, I forget that I’m across the net from pop-music royalty. “He makes you a better player when you partner with him,” Carell explains. A little Fall Out Boy joke.’” It’s a testament to the enduring and wide-ranging reach of Wentz’s musical legacy that a 24-year-old Belarusian professional athlete can make an offhand reference to a song that his band released 15 years ago.įor almost two decades, the Fall Out Boy bassist has been the leading man of the American pop-punk ecosystem, but he’s also just a guy people like to be around. “I think when we won the match, Sabalenka was like, ‘Thanks for the memories,’” he says, a reference to the 2007 Fall Out Boy single, whose music video featured none other than Kim Kardashian. He was hitting the ball so well that everyone involved, including Sabalenka, suddenly realized this would not be a typically breezy exhibition outing. Last fall, Crabb brought Wentz along to a charity match, where he played doubles alongside top women’s player Aryna Sabalenka. “Pete is probably the smartest player I work with,” announces Crabb, describing the thoughtful and holistic approach that Wentz brings to his game. Way better than I am,” Steve Carell writes me in an email later.) This court is such a hub for amateur Hollywood tennis enthusiasm that when I arrive to Crabb’s block to meet Wentz, I’m able to identify the correct house when I see Survivor host Jeff Probst exiting the premises, toting his racquet. ![]() tennis scene,” has played against or alongside. The front gate of Crabb’s home is a revolving door of celebrity tennis enthusiasts - Steve Carell, Dave Grohl, Zach Braff, to name a few - all of whom Wentz, once hailed by GQ as the “king of the L.A. When he’s not at home hanging out with his three children, at the studio recording a new album with Fall Out Boy, or mentoring one of the young artists on his own record label, Wentz can be found here several days a week, grinding it out with whomever is around. We’re standing on the private backyard court of Wentz’s tennis coach, Chris Crabb. And when it’s windy, you still have to figure it out. When it’s going wrong, you still have to figure it out. “You’re out there alone and you have to figure it out. “Tennis, what it does for me personally, especially playing singles, is that it’s this equalizer,” says Fall Out Boy bassist and pop-punk legend Pete Wentz. ![]() That neon-yellow felt ball always tells the truth, even when you’re going viral on TikTok or receiving an endless stream of accolades for a performance. For members of the celebrity class, the appeal of tennis is simple: These are people accustomed to receiving preferential treatment and flattery in so many facets of their lives that they might enjoy the thrill of a little objective, low-stakes humbling.
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