'Daily Show' host Michael Kosta: Lucky losers don't only find success in tennis

Comedian Michael Kosta has crowned the funniest professional tennis player, and his answer might surprise you. The Daily Show host and former University of Illinois tennis player was at the BNP Paribas Open this week to promote his new, aptly-named memoir Lucky Loser, and recalled how tennis and comedy previously intersected for him in Indian Wells when filming Tennis Channel's "Warm & Fuzzy" for two seasons.

"Andrey Rublev made me laugh the hardest," he said. "I'm not sure it was on purpose, he was just burning down the whole idea of what we were doing. Madison Keys has chops ... Coco [Gauff] has chops, she delivers a nice joke, she does a good job."

After graduating from college, Kosta attempted to play professional tennis for two years, but only got to a world ranking of No. 864. The journey, and the lessons from his failures that influenced his comedy career, are chronicled in his new book. But in speaking with Prakash Amritraj and Steve Weismann on Tennis Channel, Kosta also confessed that the methodology, and repetition, behind playing tennis and being a successful comedian are similar.

"Comedy's a lot like tennis. You need reps, he said. "You lose a lot. Every player who's here has lost so much, comedy you lose so much ... but it's personal. It came from your heart, it came from your soul, it came from your mind. I have bombed so hard that I had to change my socks after a set. You are sweating in places you didn't know you could sweat.

"Tennis, you lose, it sucks, but sometimes, your opponent just played great. Comedy, when it goes poorly, it really hurts."

"My dream was to play professional tennis ... but that didn't happen," he continued. "As I was sitting down to write this book, as a comedian, I was really curious how tennis played such a role in what I'm doing now, and man, did it ever. It's the foundation of who I am as a comedian as a person."

"This book is about failing at something you believe is your dream," he added, "and then all of sudden realizing that it set you up for success in something totally different and insane."

While on-site in Palm Springs, Kosta said he's been keeping up with the tour's top off-court headlines—"If you start asking me what happened in the second round yesterday, that's going to be tougher for me," he said—namely, Jannik Sinner's suspension after the settlement of his doping case, which Kosta likened to "getting suspended from school during spring break;" Venus Williams' wild card-that-wasn't; and Matteo Berrettini's rousing victory in the Nothing Major Podcast's Hottie Bracket.

Read more: Tommy Paul: "I go to sleep wanting to be Matteo Berrettini" 😂

"I probably would've lost early qualies, which is kind of how my tennis career went," he quipped of the latter.

But Kosta found common ground in Indian Wells with a player who has made tennis her career: Top 100-ranked Eva Lys, one of two lucky losers to earn a place in the women's event after a withdrawal. The German also reached the fourth round of the Australian Open after getting a second crack at the main draw, and became the first female lucky loser to ever get that far in Melbourne. She spoke openly with Kosta about how being a lucky loser forced her to push aside her habit of over-thinking on court, how that benefited her play, and helped her to find her own confidence.

And comedian left the 23-year-old with some further encouragement—Lucky Loser to lucky loser.

"Next year at this time, let's not be talking lucky loser," Kosta said. "Let's be talking main draw without even doing qualies!"