WOMEN'S SEMIFINAL - WIMBLEDON

 As I am writing this piece, Ashleigh Barty of Australia, the world's No. 1 ranked player in the world, a player of Aboriginal descent has just made her way into the finals of The Championships at Wimbledon and I am sitting here seething in rage at Chris Evert and Chris Fowler as they continue to use the term "walkabout" to describe Ms. Barty's lapse during certain points in the match.

I tweeted earlier tagging Ms. Evert in my tweet and using the hashtag that was coined for Ms. Evert to let her know that using the term walkabout to describe Ms. Barty was offensive.  Various users on Twitter informed me that at the start of the match, her fellow commentator, Chris Fowler also used the opportunity to use the word walkabout in describing Ms. Barty.

At a time when ESPN is being shown to have issues as it relates to diversity (see Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor), it would have been good if the powers that be had taken both Chrises into a room with a Wikepedia page and let them know just how wrong it is to use this form of language and how hurtful it can be to Ms. Barty.  This year we are being told that the dress that Ms. Barty is wearing is her clothing sponsor's way of paying homage to another Aboriginal, Ms. Evonne Goolagong who won The Championships 50 years ago this year. 

How hurtful must it be for Ms. Goolagong, a woman who has paved the way for Aboriginal persons to listen to a young player's lapses being termed as walkabout.

For those who do not have access to Wikipedia, a quick Google search turned up this article

https://www.outdoorrevival.com/old-ways/walkabout-aboriginal-australian-hike-serves-rite-passage.html

A walkabout is a rite of passage which is of a spiritual nature. As a result of Western culture using it in a disparaging and disrespectful manner, the Aboriginal peoples have had to cease using the word to describe a part of their culture and heritage.  How absolutely shameful is this.

As a woman of colour and a Jamaican living in a land that is not of my birth, I hear so many remarks being made about Jamaicans on a whole.  The most famous is that Jamaicans love to smoke weed and there was the time when someone said that Jamaicans are best known for how they can use a mop (don't get me started).

ESPN commentators and frankly its not just ESPN but commentators on a whole need to do better.  I thought we had long passed the time when I had to take to my blog to talk about issues such as this, but again, it is clear the more things change, the more they remain the same.  I am exhausted by this. 

Currently watching the second semifinal.  Yet to hear the talk of Sabalenka's grunting so small mercies.  

EMBARGO THIS

 Many persons who follow me on social media do so because they know that I absolutely  love women's tennis.  I am perhaps one of the few persons who wrote extensively about the need for the WTA to have its own tv coverage so that the women could have equal footing with the men.  I tagged anyone who would listen and I have been blocked by many journalists because of my penchant for tagging them when they make silly, demeaning or just plain out of touch remarks as it relates to the women's game.  These days I don't do much writing as my work schedule has become unbelievably busy and frankly, I am exhausted.  Not by tennis but because the more things change, the more they remain the same.

I have a WTA TV subscription.  I was one of the first persons to sign up and I even did a little write up about why persons should sign up for a subscription.  I literally ditched my Samsung TV and replaced it with an LG because I realised that with the LG I could actually watch women's tennis on my tv without the need for me to stream from my phone.  Next thing on the agenda is for the WTA to develop a WTA TV app and my life will be golden.

However, this post is not about the WTA.  It is actually about Wimbledon and ESPN and the current embargo that is now in place for the women's quarter finals and I suspect the embargo will also be in place for the women's semi finals.  There is no doubt in my mind that there will be no embargo when it comes to the men's quarter finals.  After all, we do need the men to be as visible as possible.

Who benefits from embargoes?  As far as I know today is a working day for persons in the US and UK.  It is also a working day for me.  I had a public holiday yesterday (5 July) so I was able to stay home and watch all the round of 16 matches on the women's side.  The scheduling was pretty good by the Wimbledon organisers as apart from a few times where there were women's matches being played at the same time, the time factor allowed for me to watch as many of the women's matches as I could.  I applaud the schedulers for this.

However, today is a work day.  Many persons will be watching the matches on their phones via an app and today is the day that the powers that be chose to impose an embargo.  I subscribe to ESPN Play which is the ESPN that facilitates the Caribbean.  It costs a pretty penny to be able to do this as in order for you to get a sports package, you have to subscribe to channels that you don't actually need.  Sports is always placed on a higher cable package.  In order for me to get the online version of ESPN Play I have to subscribe to a sports package that has such things as the Outdoor channel which I can tell you I have never been tempted to spend more than a few seconds as I scroll to find ESPN on my  programme guide. 

Today, as I sat at my desk with my earphone plugged getting ready to watch Ons Jabeur I realised that the match was not available.  I, being smart, decided to turn on my VPN and lo and behold I was once again stymied.  I could have used my family who lives in the US log in information, but I thought to myself, why do I need to go through all that trouble just to watch a tennis match?  Why?

If you are not a die hard fan of the women's game, and let me tell you something, most of the people who do commentary on tv, are not die hard fans of the women's game.  How do I know this?  I know this because they think that some of the players who have made the second week of Wimbledon are having a break out season.  They think that this is a career defining moment for them.  They speak of persons like Sabalenka, Muchova and Badosa as if they are unknowns.  They know nothing of Ons Jabeur other than that she is from a North African country.  At least they know about her husband and the fact that he is her fitness coach.  Yaaaay. 

This is why whenever Saturday morning rolls around and you are getting ready to watch the women's final from Wimbledon, your talking points will be about Federer and Djokovic and what they bring to the game.  If Kerber makes the final, the fact that she beat Serena Williams in majors on 2 occassions will be brought up ad nauseam, because clearly Kerber has done nothing else in her career.  And don't get me started if Sabalenka gets to the final, her grunting will be a topic of conversation. If Barty manages to get to the final, I am sure somewhere they will be trotting out poor Evonne Goolagong to talk about Barty's outfit which pays homage to Goolagong's dress from 50 years ago.  Talk about a Lewinsky moment.

Women's tennis deserves better than this.  The women deserve to have their sport reach far and wide.  They deserve to have their careers discussed along the same lines as commentators do the men's.  No one shows Djokovic's wife and talks about whether she prepares his vegan meals.  No one ever focuses on Nadal's wife in the stands.  They focus on the men, the strategy that is being employed and whether or not it will work against his opponent.

Most of the matches that I have watched at this year's Wimbledon have been women's matches.  The word variation seems to be the only word that commentators can use when a player uses a slice or plays a drop shot.  I don't know whether that is variation in tennis or whether that is just a strategy that is being employed by the player.  For commentators, that seems to be the former as apparently hitting with pace just makes you one dimensional.  Go figure.

I can only hope that as the US Open rolls around later this year with stands at full capacity that commentators will do much better by the women but I am not holding my breath on that.

UPDATE:  I wrote this yesterday and neglected to post.  This morning big surprise.  There was no embargo on the men's quarter final.  I checked to see if I could watch it and lo and behold there it was.  Things that make you go Hmmmm

 

French Open Preview - Floaters and Wildcard Edition

 So the French Open is set to begin in a little over 24 hours as I write this.  I am currently sitting on my couch watching Bara v Frech battle to gain a spot in the main draw.  I have never seen Bara play or even heard of her but she is quite feisty.  Frech is also a fighter but she really does not have much with which to hurt her opponent.   I also watched this morning American Hailey Baptiste make her way into the main draw with a struggle win over Grabher who stands so far back to receive serve she was literally standing where the lines people are located.

So the draw is out and of course there are the usual hand wringing. I am not about that this year.  

One of the upsides to finally having a platform that features exclusive women's tennis is the ability to see a whole host of players that you would normally never get to watch.  As a result I have been bingeing on some really fun players and I thought that I would focus more on these for this year's French Open.  Forgive me if you have already heard about them but here are my list of Floaters and Wildcards that you should keep an eye on.  They are hungry and looking to make their mark:

Paula Badosa

Maria Osorio Serrano

Tamira Zidansek

Veronika Kudermetova

Jill Teichmann

Nadia Podoroska

Ana Konjuh

I am sure that there are more out there and as the tournament starts there may be more women who will make themselves known. 

Press Conference Controversy

So Naomi Osaka has decided that she is not going to do any press during this year's French Open.  I am of 2 minds on this so bear with me.  On the one hand I am assuming that professional athletes have some sort of obligation to do press either before or during tournaments. I suspect that this assumption while not written in stone is something that everyone is aware of.  On the one hand it provides visibility to the sport and the tournament as it allows sports journalist to have access to the players and write stories so that us fans who cannot be there have some idea of what is going on in the minds of said players on particular topics.  

This assumption has not always benefitted fans as some of the stories that are written by journalists leave a lot to be desired.  In addition to this there are times when the questions to players leave fans wanting to wipe the floor with journalists.  The questions and assumptions are sometimes intrusive and lack empathy especially when a player is going through challenging situations with their games or their off court issues.  See Venus at Wimbledon when she was dealing with the fatal motor vehicle accident.  

As far as Ms. Osaka's stance that for her mental health she is not doing any press, I can empathise with her and the stance that she has taken.  Many of us struggle daily with the mental aspect of our jobs. We find it challenging to get up and go to work every day and we struggle to cope with the demands that are being made on us by our bosses.  It does not help that currently Ms. Osaka and many others not only have to deal with the mental struggle of being a professional athlete traveling the world, but doing so in the middle of a pandemic.  I cannot imagine how arduous that can be.  I don't think a lot of persons have realised just how challenging this must be for athletes, and especially those who are travelling with children.  You not only have to protect yourself and your family, but you are also ensuring that the team that travels with you are also protected.  That is a lot of responsibility to be placed on the shoulders of an athlete and then you have to go out there and put out your best effort.  I can therefore see why Ms. Osaka felt that the best thing to do was to cut some of the extraneous stuff from her schedule and she believes that appearing before the press to discuss her performance was not something she wanted to subject herself to, at least not at this tournament. 

The press corps, and some fans have taken it upon themselves to condemn Ms. Osaka's stance.  They have actually made her point with their ready  takes and have not looked at the reason why she felt the need to take this stance.  I reminded myself this morning that the press corps that usually does the French Open are the same ones who had press conference transcripts embargoed so that they could write their think pieces and skew the answers given by players and then have the players derided by fans because of comments which have been taken out of context.  We talk all the time about misinformation and fake news in politics but it also happens in sport, and most of the egregious things that have been written about athletes have mostly been done by the press corps covering the French Open.  

Fans can usually view in real time press conferences in real time from the AO, USO and Wimbledon and transcripts are provided in a relatively short space of time.  

Ms. Osaka is the highest paid female athlete.  She has a fantastic marketing team behind her and I am sure that her many sponsors are not killing themselves because of her stance of no press conferences.  Perhaps what the media should do is try and find some way to engage with Ms. Osaka on mental health issues and how they affect athletes.  It would be great to have the sport's athletes who are competing give their views on playing in a pandemic.  The challenges that they face.  We don't all need to listen to Benoit Paire spout off about the slavery of tennis in a pandemic. 

WHEN THE SILENCE IS NO LONGER DEAFENING

 

I wrote this piece in January and my editor made some changes but life has got in the way and I just never got around to publishing the piece.  However, this morning after seeing a tweet from Alla Kudreyetsava I felt that now was an opportune time to perhaps publish this piece. 

We have all done and said things in the past and when we get older we sometimes have moments of self reflection.  We all need a chance to rectify the mistakes of our past and live changed lives. 

 That being said, it is time for tennis to put Ion Tiriac out to pasture.  This man will never change.  He will continue to be a racist, sexist person and no amount of time will ever change that.   His comments about Serena Williams from a few years ago was met with condemnation by the WTA and many tennis legends.  I can't recall if he ever apologised and I believed he was fined for his reprehensible comments.  However, he clearly has not suffered enough as he is back with even more racist and sexist commentary.  This time around though, unless I have missed it, I have not seen any condemnation from the powers that be in tennis regarding his comments. 

This time around tennis needs to allow Ion Tiriac to experience the consequences of his consistently poor behaviour as a professed leader of the sport.  His tournament in Madrid needs to be downgraded or he needs to lose WTA privileges for this tournament.  He already treats the women as if they don't matter at this tournament anyway.  I for one will refuse to watch particular tournament, if the pandemic does not make it obsolete.  The AELTC needs to revoke his membership and have him barred from ever entering the hallowed halls of Wimbledon, in the same way that they banned the father of Bernard Tomic. 

The time has come for tennis to step forward in a very forceful way to condemn behaviour that brings the sport into disrepute. 

 On the same note, I was sad to see the lack of support in relation to Olga Sharipova's story of abuse.  I am not quite sure which agents have told their charges not to respond publicly but this clearly does tennis a disservice when it seems as if incidents of abuse are met with silence and racist and sexist language by so called legends of the sport are also met with deafening silence.

 What does it take for tennis to drag itself into the 21st century and beyond?  

 I saw a tweet recently from WNBA players of the Atlanta Falcons, a team part owned by a politician. The team wore shirts supporting her opponent.  That takes courage.  To put your salary and job on the line in defence of something in which you believe.  I can only hope that tennis players will stand for something, anything, rather than how many likes and RTs or how well their social media is doing.

 Finally, woke up recently to a tweet from Heather Watson asking how she can follow live scores from Abu Dhabi.  If that does not tell you just how shitty and incompetent and worthless the leadership of the WTA is, I don't know what will.

Update:   So a few things have happened since I wrote the above piece in January.  Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times tweeted a piece from the ITF which showed the coverage of men's and women's tennis.  For the money that the ITF spent to do that study, they could have read my blog as it is filled with factual and documented cases of the sexism that permeates tennis commentary.  

As I posited on social media, even the time of day that women's matches are scheduled is usually when most folks are unable to watch a match.  If its the French Open, women's matches are usually scheduled during lunch time while conversely most men's matches are featured at a time when fans are more engaged.  Its not a bug of tennis.  It is a feature.  

Finally, I woke up this morning to the below tweets from Alla. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">2/2 20 year olds and a bunch of mamas that look fitter than ever... I gained a lot of weight during pregnancy and I’m struggling to shed those pounds. I’m trying, I’m working and I’m back on the tennis court... So f*** y** and leave me alone. <a href="https://t.co/JGHmQ4ORTW">pic.twitter.com/JGHmQ4ORTW</a></p>&mdash; Alla Kudryavtseva (@AllaK11) <a href="https://twitter.com/AllaK11/status/1381805685382479873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 Good on you for responding Alla, but maybe if your organisation had done something about what Tiriac did to Serena and maybe if other women had come out and condemned that kind of behaviour and maybe if organisations did not sit there smugly taking money from betting companies while condemning gambling in tennis maybe, just maybe, you wouldn't be experiencing what you experienced.  

 

WHEN THERE ARE NO ALLIES

We all saw the video.  We have seen the tweets.  We have seen the other social media posts.  Young black players on the WTA and ATP Tour calling out racism. Using their platforms to stand with the family of George Floyd and other persons who have been subject to police brutality in America causing their deaths. 

What we have not seen are the white allies.  Tennis is a global sport.  Many of the persons who have made women's tennis as popular as it is right now are persons of colour.  The highest paid female athlete in the world as reported by Forbes, is a 22 year old woman of colour, Naomi Osaka.  A young woman whose father is Haitian and whose mother is Japanese.  If anyone knows the struggle of race it is without a doubt this young woman.  Naomi has not only used her social media presence of millions of followers to make a statement but she has literally gone outside to join protesters in the fight for justice.  

Young Coco Gauff, just turned 16 years old, using her platform to not only bring awareness to the struggle of being black, but not backing down from calling out her white peers for their insensitivity.  Osaka has done the same thing. 

White tennis players, both current and former players have shown just what they value most.  Lisa Raymond's tweet about property, without even pretending to understand the reason behind it says it all.  Lisa Raymond, a lesbian and someone who apparently has no issue in calling out property destruction but clearly draws the line at standing for something.  Anything.  

What galls me the most is the absolute silence from the great thinkers in our sport.  From the ones who write columns like Pete Bodo, Christopher Clarey and others, the silence from those who cover this sport is deafening.  

I went through the social media of various journalists and commentators and while the list is not exhaustive, this is what I found: 

Christopher Clarey - pictures of how much he is missing Roland Garros this year 

Darren Cahill - Australian football with a slight nod to a video and a comment about "things calming down" (note to Darren, they have not)

Pete Bodo - absolutely  nothing worth repeating 

WTA - absolutely nothing but they did RT the Francis Tiafoe video so I guess that is something

ATP - following the WTA, they also did nothing but RT Francis Tiafoe's video with the same message. 

Who says that both Tours don't communicate?

On #BlackOutTuesday, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Thiem tweeted black screens apparently in support of BlackoutTuesday.  I guess they felt that they had done enough.  The women on the other hand couldn't be bothered to even pretend to care. 

We have always known that racism exists in tennis circles.  It is apparent in the way how players of colour are and were covered and it is apparent that during this time, tennis has not changed.  Even a review of the social media platforms of the Grand Slams shows nothing of consequence in standing in solidarity with the black players who make up part of the Tour.  It is appalling to me as a person of colour who supports tennis by subscribing to the various media platforms, I am angry that these organisations do not think it worth their while to offer some amount of support to players who are standing against a system that continues to marginalise them. 

The anger and disappointment that I am feeling right now makes me sad as what tennis has done is that it has once again proven to me that when the time comes for it to stand for something, it literally stands for nothing. 

WHEN TENNIS SHOWS ITS UGLY SIDE

The Spin Team 

Tennis has always been a selfish sport.  Decisions that are made are never in the best interests of the players, but are always in terms of how to make money.  After all tennis is a business first and foremost and no one goes into business with the aim of losing money.  I have no quarrel with that. 

The decision by the tournament organisers to cancel the BNP Paribas Open ("Indian Wells") a day before the start of the qualifying tournament says as much about the organisers as it does about the sport itself.  Indian Wells is a tournament that for some reason decided to brand itself as the Fifth Slam (not sure how that came about as Miami has always been that for many fans, but I digress).  It is a tournament that has seen large structural changes and the tweets on social media about the changes to the tournament have always flooded not only my timeline but mainstream media as well. 

The decision to cancel the tournament as a result of the detection of coronavirus in an individual in the Coachella Valley was met with the usual selfishness by many.  While many are of the view that the tournament could have made this decision earlier, having regard to players already on site practising etc, the fact remains that the COVID-19 virus is still a moving target and many businesses are not only watching developments but putting contingency plans in place should there be an outbreak amongst staff.   While some would say that it is easy to do that, it is not.  

Only this week, in my own organisation, business travels are being cancelled and directives have gone out that persons should cancel non-essential personal travel.  While this may be easy for individuals, sporting organisations have a much tougher task as they have to consider the various moving parts before taking action. 

Consider that quite a few players on both the ATP and WTA Tours are from Italy.  That whole country is now on lock down mode with many sporting events being cancelled.  Consider whether players who reign from that country, have not been tested, comingle with their colleagues in the locker rooms, on the practice courts, and on the stadium courts.  That is an epidemic waiting to happen. 

I have seen tweets from players and coaches who are of the view that the tournament could have continued minus fans.  Seriously? How about some consideration for the lines people, umpires, locker room attendants, tv people who have to be on sight to show these matches, what about them and their families?

A familiar sight whenever I watch tennis matches is the constant blowing of noses by tennis players.  It is something that I hate to see as sometimes noses are blown and wiped on towels which are then handed to ball kids.  Sometimes tissue is used and not every player takes that tissue and stuffs it into their racquet bags.  A player with a sneeze or cough that then handles a ball with their bare hands is a walking lab of contagion.  Who would want to be exposed to that?

We are being told that we need to constantly wash our hands with soap and water and where that is not available we are to use hand sanitizers.  For those who believe that the Indian Wells tournament could have gone ahead, are you saying that facilities should be placed on site so that players use hand sanitizers or wash their hands before handling balls before serves etc?  

As players travel from country to country and from tournament to tournament they pick up all kinds of bugs.  There are those players who travel with their whole families and I am sure will not take the risk of exposing their children to a virus such as COVID-19. 

*As the Tour moves to Miami (where that tournament is scheduled to begin, a fact which I doubt will happen), then the elephant in the room looms.  Clay season.  Already we have seen that many events are being cancelled in Spain and Italy.  The virus is spreading across Europe and that puts in doubt events such as the French Open and Wimbledon.  Japan is of the view that the Olympics will go ahead but no one is optimistic that it will actually go ahead and even if it does, it won't be the summer Olympics. 

It is time that tennis realises, that for good or ill, at some point it will have to press the pause button rather than play. 

*The Miami Open has now been cancelled 

CLIJSTERS IS BACK ... AGAIN

So Clijsters is back on Tour and already the articles describing her return as welcome and classy etc have begun circulating.  The commentators I understand are beside themselves in describing just how wonderful it is to see her back and what she will bring to the Tour. 

It never fails to amaze me how a player who has never done much in the way of promoting the WTA Tour is always looked at as the person who brings so much benefit to the WTA Tour. I can never understand why this is, but apparently this is tennis and has always been tennis and will continue to be tennis. 

Many people compare Serena's penchant for talking up the fact that she is a mother and how she finds it inspiring as similar to how Clijsters was when she returned to the Tour for the second (or maybe third time).  The difference though is that Serena has used her platform to:

• change the WTA's policy on rankings and pregnancy, and maternity leave; 
• inspire conversations regarding health care for women, and in particular minority women; 
• with her husband ignited a conversation on paid parental leave;

Clijsters, on the other hand  used her role as a mother to decry the long never ending tennis season.  She constantly talked about the fact that she just wanted to be home with her children and family and bemoaned the many injuries that sidelined her. If other articles are to be believed, apparently staying at home as a wife and mother was not fulfilling enough.  Go figure. 

I have never understood why Clijsters who never failed to show up at a tournament as if the nets were in her backyard,  and who made millions from playing every tournament imaginable,  while at the same time complaining about tennis, is held up as the epitome of class and apparently, the saviour of the WTA.  It is even worse, as I understand it that she has not only returned, but returned looking very much out of shape. I am not entirely sure what strikes them as classy about a complainer. 

Comparisons have been made about the success of Clijsters in her first return and Serena's when she returned from maternity leave.  The difference for those who know is that Serena was still lactating (i.e. breastfeeding), while Clijsters had been away for 2 years and had a toddler who was walking and talking.  The fact that many are saying it took Serena 2 years to win a title, when it only took Clijsters a few months in her comeback is the type of ridiculous and shortsighted commentary that Clijsters inspires. 

Clijsters believes that she can return to the WTA Tour and possibly dominate.  It would be a monumental slap in the face of all those young women who have been working hard to achieve their dreams and to support the WTA Tour, if Clijsters is allowed to have numerous wildcards, rise in the rankings, and pick and choose any  elite tournaments to enter. How does that strike anyone as fair?

There are many more deserving women out there who are struggling with their careers who could benefit from these wild cards.  We need only look at the qualifying draw in Dubai to see the list of players who had to play qualifying (Julia Georges, Carla Suarez-Navarro [final year on Tour], Mladenovic, Kasatkina, Hseih to name but a few of the players who had to play qualifying ).  The fact that Clijsters, as well as Sharapova, do not need to work for them should be a key talking point for those who cover the WTA.

I truly hope that Clijsters loses every single match and that retirement will come calling once again.  This time for good.