(This comes from a discussion on the Monica Seles Yahoo! Group,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/monicaseles/ )

In my view, you are a true fan of a player if you love her game and
greatly enjoy watching her play, and you make a positive commitment
(which I call a "vow of fanship") to follow that player.

Exactly what "following a player" entails, depends on the individual
fan. For me, it means writing down all her results and teletext-
reports. It means recording and keeping all her matches &c. that are
televised on channels to which I have access. It means subscribing to
all the relevant Yahoo! Groups, and posting regular messages to the
best ones. I am a fan of six players, and this is the least that I do
for any of them.

One is *not* a true fan of a player if one has no appreciation of her
tennis-qualities - if, for example, one is only interested in a
player because of her looks, without bothering to study her game.
Similarly, if one cares only about how successful a player is, with
no love of her game, then that is admiration but not true fanship.

A lot of people admire Monica because of her personality, and the way
she's overcome so much adversity in her life - but even this is
not /sufficient/ for true fanship. I've been a fan of Monica since
1992, and I can justify my fanship with the following other reasons:
* her two-handed groundstrokes
* her searing power
* her gasp-inducing winners
* her hellacious angles
* her ability to hit a rising ball with perfect timing
* her pinpoint accuracy
* her lethal return of serve
* her passing-shots
* her mental strength
* her intensity
* her courage on the big points
* her grunting ;-)
* her preparation for tournaments, and general perfectionism
* her generosity, modesty and graciousness.

Finally, true fanship is irrevocable. If you decide that you are no
longer a fan of a player, then you were never really her fan in the
first place. For example, I wanted to dump Iva Majoli for two weeks
after she lost 6-0 6-1 to Nathalie Tauziat at Wimbledon 98. But then
I realised that the bond of true fanship is as unbreakable as the
Sacrament of Matrimony.

--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/