by Karen
2 weeks have come and gone so fast that I think I am still recovering from it, but I am really not. I have been ill since Friday of last week so have been taking it easy. On Saturday I collapsed at my doctor's office suffering the onslaught of full blow menopause. Never let anyone tell you that hot flashes don't kill you. They can. Anyway, I am feeling a lot better now. Drugs will do that to you and so I am back, your friendly neighbourhood blogger to dispense my thoughts to the loyal readers of this here little blog.
These are random thoughts, and they are not 50 like our good friend Jon Wertheim over at Sports Illustrated. There will be no grades. However at the top of my list is a rant, so I guess you could say I am numbering them as I go along:-
1. Serena Williams deserves so much better from the media than what she gets. In case you missed it, Serena got knocked out in the third round by Alize Cornet of France. She and her sister were sitll in the doubles tournament, and when they took the Court for their second round match, Serena could barely hold the ball, much less hit it. When she attempted to serve, her serve, the greatest serve in women's tennis history, never moved the radar gun. They eventually retired. The talking heads at ESPN decided that it would be a good thing to speculate about what was wrong with Serena. All fine, nothing wrong with that, but then to use that podium to then speculate as to whether she was on some type of drugs, and to then utter the dreaded "testing" word was just as low as you can get. Martina, never to be counted out of the conversation when ti comes to negative thinking towards Serena, jumped in, and offered her opinion that what she saw was not Serena suffering from a virus (you know because Martina also has a medical degree and has possibly, actually, maybe treated Serena) and therefore was able to speak authoritiavley on this topic. Give me a fucking break. Did anyone else think that maybe Serena was as she said she was, suffering from a viral illness? Frankly speaking I think Serena deserves to keep her illness, injuries close to her chest, because even when she fucking discloses what is wrong with her, no one believes her. I wonder why that is. Let us take a look at those players who the tennis media beleive when they talk about injuries:-
We believe Petra Kvitova that her asthma is the reason why she sucks everywhere else except at Wimbledon. We believe Maria Sharapova when she withdraws from touranmnets and sits out 6 months of the tennis season because of her shoulder. We believe that since he was born Rafael Nadal has had bad knees and that his career is almost over. How about Novak Djokovic and his gluten allergy and his inability to breathe during points. We believe those people right? Why is it then that so many journalists did not believe Serena when she said she cut her foot on a piece of glass, it then required surgery, which led to her developing an embolism which nearly caused her death? Why do we believe that eveyrone else has a fucking injury or defect but that Serena Williams, she of the 17 Grand Slams is not suffering from some ailment or another? Why?
I will tell you, it is because she is Serena Williams. It is because she is black. It is because people like her, as far as the tennis media is concerned should not be injured. When Serena said last year that she was tired, many in the media were skeptical. Clearly, she is not allowed to be tired either. When she won Miami and then lost in Charleston, she said she needed some time away from tennis. She got that time, but clearly it was not enough as she lost in the second round of Paris and the third round of Wimbledon.
If I was Serena, here is what I would do for the rest of the year. I would book myself a ticket somewhere, anywehre, as far away from tennis as possible (you can come see me Serena, your long lost sister), leave the racquets and tennis stuff behind in the States. Shut down for the rest of the year. Treat whatever ailments you are experiencing, be they mental or physical. Come back in Australia, fresh as a daisy and raring to go. Fuck tennis. Fuck the WTA and fuck the media who does not give a shit anyway. They just want you to sell advertising dollars because let us get it straight, the only reason why they really want you to remain in tennis is to continue to make money.
2 weeks have come and gone so fast that I think I am still recovering from it, but I am really not. I have been ill since Friday of last week so have been taking it easy. On Saturday I collapsed at my doctor's office suffering the onslaught of full blow menopause. Never let anyone tell you that hot flashes don't kill you. They can. Anyway, I am feeling a lot better now. Drugs will do that to you and so I am back, your friendly neighbourhood blogger to dispense my thoughts to the loyal readers of this here little blog.
These are random thoughts, and they are not 50 like our good friend Jon Wertheim over at Sports Illustrated. There will be no grades. However at the top of my list is a rant, so I guess you could say I am numbering them as I go along:-
1. Serena Williams deserves so much better from the media than what she gets. In case you missed it, Serena got knocked out in the third round by Alize Cornet of France. She and her sister were sitll in the doubles tournament, and when they took the Court for their second round match, Serena could barely hold the ball, much less hit it. When she attempted to serve, her serve, the greatest serve in women's tennis history, never moved the radar gun. They eventually retired. The talking heads at ESPN decided that it would be a good thing to speculate about what was wrong with Serena. All fine, nothing wrong with that, but then to use that podium to then speculate as to whether she was on some type of drugs, and to then utter the dreaded "testing" word was just as low as you can get. Martina, never to be counted out of the conversation when ti comes to negative thinking towards Serena, jumped in, and offered her opinion that what she saw was not Serena suffering from a virus (you know because Martina also has a medical degree and has possibly, actually, maybe treated Serena) and therefore was able to speak authoritiavley on this topic. Give me a fucking break. Did anyone else think that maybe Serena was as she said she was, suffering from a viral illness? Frankly speaking I think Serena deserves to keep her illness, injuries close to her chest, because even when she fucking discloses what is wrong with her, no one believes her. I wonder why that is. Let us take a look at those players who the tennis media beleive when they talk about injuries:-
We believe Petra Kvitova that her asthma is the reason why she sucks everywhere else except at Wimbledon. We believe Maria Sharapova when she withdraws from touranmnets and sits out 6 months of the tennis season because of her shoulder. We believe that since he was born Rafael Nadal has had bad knees and that his career is almost over. How about Novak Djokovic and his gluten allergy and his inability to breathe during points. We believe those people right? Why is it then that so many journalists did not believe Serena when she said she cut her foot on a piece of glass, it then required surgery, which led to her developing an embolism which nearly caused her death? Why do we believe that eveyrone else has a fucking injury or defect but that Serena Williams, she of the 17 Grand Slams is not suffering from some ailment or another? Why?
I will tell you, it is because she is Serena Williams. It is because she is black. It is because people like her, as far as the tennis media is concerned should not be injured. When Serena said last year that she was tired, many in the media were skeptical. Clearly, she is not allowed to be tired either. When she won Miami and then lost in Charleston, she said she needed some time away from tennis. She got that time, but clearly it was not enough as she lost in the second round of Paris and the third round of Wimbledon.
If I was Serena, here is what I would do for the rest of the year. I would book myself a ticket somewhere, anywehre, as far away from tennis as possible (you can come see me Serena, your long lost sister), leave the racquets and tennis stuff behind in the States. Shut down for the rest of the year. Treat whatever ailments you are experiencing, be they mental or physical. Come back in Australia, fresh as a daisy and raring to go. Fuck tennis. Fuck the WTA and fuck the media who does not give a shit anyway. They just want you to sell advertising dollars because let us get it straight, the only reason why they really want you to remain in tennis is to continue to make money.
No comments:
Post a Comment