As we go through an extremely long rain delay, and as it is
Monday here in Cayman and I have become quite bored with the humdrum of the law
office with which I work, I thought I would jot down some thoughts that have
been going through my head recently. They
are in no particular order and are in no way connected.
1.
Legacies and Inspirations – I
read Jon Wertheim’s Mailbag where he spoke about legacies and inspirations and
I agree with his take on this 100%.
Venus and Serena are not about leaving a legacy for just African
Americans, or indeed players of the same ethnicity, they are about inspiring
everyone. Recently, I read where Nadia
Petrova, no lover of the Williams Sisters indicated that seeing Serena be so
successful at this age and stage in her career has inspired her to continue
fighting. Many young players say in interviews how much they love watching
Serena play and those who play World Team Tennis look to Venus and her fight
against inequality and look at the strength that she portrays in playing against
the odds while fighting a debilitating disease like Sjorgen’s Syndrome.
2.
Tennis Narratives –
Commentators really need to change the narratives that they continue to force
on viewers. If tennis ever wants to grow
in the United States, those that sit in the booth really need to take a closer
look at the narratives that they continue to dish out to viewers, most of whom
are knowledgeable tennis fans. People
like the McEnroe brothers really need to find a way to let those who are
channel surfing stick to the tennis on tv rather than droning on and on about
“when me was a boy”. If you are from
Jamaica, you will get that particular reference.
3.
Tennis Channel – Either Tennis
Channel wishes to be taken seriously or it does not. There is absolutely no way that whomever is
manning the Twitter site for this company did not feel the brunt of displeasure
from tennis fans when Smyczek’s match which was going down to the wire was
completely ignored until he was losing so that we could see Djokovic putting
the screws on poor Sousa. It got even
worse (if that is even possible), but once the Smyczek match was finished,
there were 2 women’s matches which were going on, one featured a contender for
the title, Na Li, and the other featured the No. 4 ranked player in the
world. It was not as if it was some
unknown players out there. Tennis
Channel decided that it would be a good idea to have Djokovic, Courier &
Tracy Austin all smothered together on one couch, while Ted Robinson looking
quite uncomfortable in another couch, interviewed Djokovic. It was must see tv. Meanwhile Li was playing
absolutely brilliant tennis. After the
Djokovic interview, rather than segue right into the match, nope, Tennis
Channel decided that a few commercials would be appropriate and so they did
that and then to add fuel to the fire, they decided that their opera segment
was also must see tv. Like many viewers
I pay good money to get Tennis Channel here in Cayman and so I just consider it
an affront that I have to pay all this money just so that I can listen to
people talking about stuff that I, and many others like me, don’t care about.
4.
Court Schedules – on Sunday,
the day when most tennis fans are at home, and the time when CBS gets coverage
of the US Open, the only women’s match that was shown on tv was that of Serena
v Sloane. They did not even bother to
show highlights. Even worse, they had the CBS Network up and running showing
tennis. They never even gave the women’s
matches that were being played as much as a highlight reel. It was embarrassingly sad. I watched Kerber v Suarez-Navarro on a
stream, as did many others. I am not
sure what the reason is, oh yes I do, they are women so no one wants to see
them playing tennis. I guess we should
be thankful that Serena Williams is still playing and that she is an American
because I can’t imagine what would happen when she finally puts up her
racquet. Today, 2 September is Labour
Day in the US. All of the women’s
matches were scheduled for the start of play. I guess the logic behind that was
no one wants to see the women play. Well
God, who is a woman, decided that She had had enough and so the rains
came. So CBS which dissed the women’s
matches today were left to show their viewers rain delay coverage featuring a
whole host of tiebreaks, many of which ironically featured women.
5.
Generation Next (ATP Edition) –
I don’t really write much about men’s tennis, simply because aside from Federer
and a few others, I don’t really enjoy men’s tennis that much. There was an interesting discussion on Tennis
Channel (yes it happens from time to time) and the conversation surrounded when
will the next great young player in men’s tennis emerge. Courier was the only person who felt that
that young player was just around the corner.
The other analysts were of the view that today’s game is just too brutal
and built on power and strength for that to happen. James Blake made the point that perhaps if
there were different surface conditions, then maybe someone with some amount of
diversity would emerge. He said as it is
now all surfaces played the same so there was no one out there with a different
game, built for a particular surface, who could perhaps have a
breakthrough. I agree with him
wholeheartedly.
6.
Generation Next (WTA Edition) –
the list is long and full of talented young women. Giorgi, Vekic, Konta, Keys,
Stephens, Hampton, Townsend, Robson, Watson, Nara, Bouchard. I could go on and
on. They are everywhere. They have a lot of work to do on their games,
but the future for the WTA is bright.
7.
USO Outfits – Nike failed
miserably this year. From Bouchard who
looked like someone spray painted her, to Azarenka who wore an ill fitting
dress, to Serena whose doubles top looked like something out of Dobby’s Finest,
Nike just did a horrible job of outfitting the ladies this year. Adidas and Lotto were not much better. From Wozniacki in a dress only a milkmaid
could love, to the confusion that was poor Robson’s kit, I wonder to myself if
maybe it is not time for these outfits to perhaps hire independent designers or
seek fan requests. Fila did Jankovic
well as did ElevenbyVenus, which as is the norm was different.
