The major focus of this article is on the transformative effects of the positioning of feminine identities of tennis players within the adversarial framework of the genre of a post-match press conference. What is investigated is how female tennis players discursively construct their identities through continual face work and a multitude of persuasive strategies of self-presentation. Furthermore, articulations of a variety of discourses are foregrounded as contributing to the construction of players’ communicative styles. Preponderant emphasis in the characterization of players’ identities is on the dimension of power. The article draws upon the tools of pragmatic analysis coupled with critical discourse analysis. The major strategies of positive self-presentation are discursively realized in a variety of ways which encompass semantic, formal and interactional structures (Van Dijk, 2000), each comprising multifarious analytical categories pertinent for the present study.
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