Women's Sports Blog

Graf Hates Tennis Too

The crystal meth revelations in Andre Agassi's book excerpt didn't bother me, although his lying about them did.  The most upsetting part was the message that's getting lost in all the drug furor.  Not only does he say several times that he hates tennis, it's clear that his wife, Steffi Graf, does also.  Both were forced to play by abusive fathers, and this shared pain was what helped bring them together.*  Both were among the greatest players of all time, and they spent their careers loathing what they were doing.  All parents who are interested in having their children play sports at a high level should read this book.  We laud the athletes who are products of 'tough' sports parents like Jorge Posada or Tiger Woods, but does the end really justify the means? 

*The fact that he calls her Stefanie, separating the person he knows from the tennis persona, is pretty telling. 

Serena Puts Serena First. As Always.

Here's a nice little follow-up to the Tulu story.  Apparently beating her sister for the year-ending Sony Ericsson title and regaining the world number one ranking were all too exhausting for Serena to consider playing for her country in the final of the Fed Cup next weekend.  She should at least have the courtesy to come up with an injury.*  She shouldn't have joined the Fed Cup team in the first place if this is how she treats its biggest set of matches.

*Now she's claiming "exhaustion."  She already has a lighter schedule than most other top players, and didn't have too much trouble in this tournament. I call shenanigans. 

Play Continues at the WTA Tour Championships

Serena, having finally unseated the most anti-climactic world number one ever in Safina, is sitting at 3-0 in the round robin portion of the tournament and has locked up a spot in the semis.  Today, Jankovic defeated Wozniacki, and Kuznetsova beat Demientieva, which means Venus secured a semifinal spot in their portion of the bracket.   Azarenka is currently up a break on alternate Radwanska and must win to advance.  If she loses, Wozniacki moves on.  Most of the matches have unfortunately been straight sets, but the Venus win over Kuznetsova sounds like a classic.  However, I would venture to guess that most casual fans don't know that tennis is still going on.  They probably presume that the U.S. Open is the end of the season, and it really should be since it's the last marquee event.  The sport is often described as "limping" its way off the stage, and that's not good for anyone. 

See Esther Vergeer Play Live

If you need an excuse to go to Amsterdam, the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Master Series is taking place there November 17th-22nd, and I suspect seeing the all-time great in her native country is quite a thrill.  Tickets may be purchased here. 

Tell Me Again How The Current Age Of Tennis Is Inferior?

29 straight minutes of baseline lobbing, that sounds fascinating.

Criticisms of Serena Turn Racist

That didn't take long.  Don't blow any sanity-watchers points reading fan reaction to the Serena situation.  Serious overreaction time is upon us, and The Big Scary Black Woman is at fault.  Her behavior was truly shocking, yet it's unlikely that the specter of, say, Jankovic doing the exact same thing would have struck people as universally "threatening."  Serena paid the price for her actions.  She was defaulted.  She paid the maximum fine.  She's now apologized twice.  Yet the calls are for her to be stripped of her total prize money for the tournament or suspended, usually charmingly augmented with terms like "thug" or "criminal."  As with any bigoted taunt, the words have to be in your head first in order to 'spontaneously' emerge.  People have clearly been waiting for years for Serena to show the true colors they'd expect from someone with her background.  Screwing up while black is still a one-strike affair in this country. 

A Pleasant But Unsurprising Result At The Open

There is a small enough number of tennis-playing women who have been number one in the world, and a smaller group still of those are under thirty.  Add to that a decimated draw, and you have a Clijsters victory.  It's not like she's some hick from the sticks.  She's a champion who played like one, and in the main didn't have to face too much competition to do it.  Shame on U.S. Open.org, as well, for deciding the most important thing about her victory was that she was "the first mom to win the Open since Evonne Goolagong."  If her child wasn't actually being carried around by her on the court while she played, it's not relevant enough to go in the headline.  It's not as if she's a single mother who had to work while she trained, and lord knows there are actually a number of those in other sports.  The headline story is that her talent is totally unabated from two years ago, and perhaps even greater since mentally she seems much more determined now that she's seen life on the other side and decided it's not that keen. 

The real surprise was Del Potro.  It's particularly unusual in that Roger rarely blows matches; his opponent generally has to beat him, but he crumbled in the fifth. 

Wow

Serena has always been the Williams sister with the more explosive personality, but I never expected anything like her behavior during the semis.  That's a line that few players have ever crossed, and being defaulted in a major, even by a point penalty, is going to be part of her legacy just as surely as winning so many tournaments. 

Belgian Day At The U.S. Open

Yeah, yeah other players blah blah blah.  Two Belgians in the semis! 

Former world number 50 Yanina Wickmayer, photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty:

How Is It Any Of Our Business?

Very disappointing quality of reportage from Jon Wertheim.  If Melanie Oudin is the athlete, why are the details of her parents' divorce relevant?  Especially to Sports Illustrated?  Just because something is a matter of public record doesn't mean it must be tracked down and published automatically.  It must have been hard enough for her and her sisters to go through that, without it being reported in the media.